Plight of a squatting family of 8

KOTA KINABALU - Imagine a family with six children who rely on grave candles for lighting at night and water all collected from a nearby graveyard as they have no electricity and water in their shack.

Such is the fate of the Chong family who are still living in a state of neglect in the city's outskirts and are currently squatting on a piece of land belonging to a kind expatriate just a stone's throw from a gated luxurious bungalow community.

The derelict-looking shack is located in an area overgrown with creepers, lallang grass and undergrowth, and littered with refuse including empty tins, bottles, broken machinery and scraps of timber - a stark contrast to the neatly manicured lawns of the gated community just beside it.

Robert Chong, the head of the family, is an odd-job labourer who is away for most of the day, and his wife is a homemaker looking after their four youngest children, while the two eldest are working as a welder and an automobile workshop assistant.

"We have been squatting here in this shack for more than nine years already. For lighting at night, we have had to depend on the candles that we collected from the nearby Catholic cemetery and also on water that we have collected in plastic containers using a wheelbarrow from the same cemetery located a kilometre away.

"My children have to study by the light of candles from a graveyard while we are surrounded by luxurious condominiums. It breaks my heart but what can we do, as we have no other place to go to. This is the only place we have.

"We feel blessed and fortunate that our landlord, Neville Charles Stanton, has kindly allowed us to stay on his land. I feel if it were other people, we probably would have long ago been chased out into the cold.

"We have actually applied before and been accepted under the housing for the poor programme (PPRT) and were supposed to be relocated to low-cost housing flats in Kg Kibabaig, Penampang. The place was already finished about two years ago but, unfortunately, we were told we haven't been able to move in because there is an issue with the road access through some villagers' lands.

"I have been going regularly to the Penampang District Council, including once with my landlord (Stanton), as late as last month to inquire about my PPRT status. But the answer was always the same, that everything has been put on hold due to the unsolved status of the access road to the site."

He said he was told the villagers there are barring the road access, as there was an unresolved issue on compensation from the authorities as a result of the access road passing through the villagers' lands.

On whether the Government has given him any assistance, Robert said there was no assistance forthcoming all these years aside from SAPP Luyang which came to change their rusted zinc roof and collapsed shack wall and helped installed a water tank for them.

"I was at the Penampang District Council at one time and they directed me to another office nearby, the name of which I can't remember, where they told me I can apply for assistance. The staff there took notes and that was it, I haven't heard anything from them since then."

As such, he hoped the authorities could assist him and his family to obtain a home, in line with the Prime Minister's 1Malaysia concept of "People First, Performance Now."

Stanton said he was also concerned for the family and their plight and hoped the authorities can do something to assist them.

"Robert and his family have been living here for some years now ever since I bought the land. They are decent people who deserve to have a decent standard of living. I sincerely hope the authorities can assist them to improve their lives."

"A businessman once approached me to purchase the land and offered me a very attractive price.

We were already at the stage where meeting with lawyers was involved, I already paid a deposit and we were about to finalise the deal. Then I overheard them saying that the family would be easily dealt with, as it was as simple as getting a court order to evict them.

"This got me very upset as I was thinking where would the poor family go if they were evicted.

I had originally bought the land to build a house on but I have since found myself another home in another area.

So I'm fine but they (Chong family) have nowhere to go.

"After much thought and soul-searching on the matter, I wrote a cheque for the RM20,000 deposit and handed it back to the businessman saying the deal was off," he said.