KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim stressed that urban renewal is not a new agenda under the MADANI Government, as it has been initiated since 2012 with the formulation of the Urban Renewal Guidelines.
He said initial discussions were held to draft a specific urban renewal act to launch the development process around Kuala Lumpur in 2013 before the process of drafting the act was announced in 2015.
Anwar said that former Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa in 2020 had spearheaded the Urban Renewal Programme under Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) involving flats that were over 40 years old.
“In 2021, the Minister of Housing (and Local Government) Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin initiated the drafting of URB (Urban Renewal Bill), on March 22, 2022 the Housing Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican continued and focused on the same principles.
“Yang Berhormat Arau (Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim who was then the Minister of Federal Territories) in September 2022 even determined that DBKL had identified 30 areas for renewal.
“Since 2012, 74 engagement sessions have been held and we have taken into account the problems faced by the people,” he said during the Minister’s Question Time session at the Dewan Rakyat today.
Anwar was responding to a question from Tan Kar Hing (PH-Gopeng) regarding the government’s commitment to the proposed Urban Renewal Bill (URB) which will ensure that no owner, regardless of race, will be forcibly evicted from their land or premises as clearly stated in Article 13 of the Federal Constitution.
The Prime Minister said the drafting of URB would not disregard Article 13 of the Federal Constitution as well as existing legal principles.
At the same time, he assured that the Bill would not transfer the original owner of the property, in addition to the ethnic composition and status of the land, whether Malay reserve, government-owned or permanent.
“Regarding ethnic ownership…for example, the Sri Perlis Flat, if it is currently 70 per cent Malay (ownership), it will remain because in this law there is no right for us to transfer the original owner,“ he said.
Therefore, Anwar said that there was no issue at all on the original owner of the property, regardless of race, being forcibly evicted from their land or premises.
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