Looking forlorn and lost, Hariah is worried about the future of her family. As both her husband and son have no stable income, they will have no place to move if they are not allowed to squat at Kampung Samariang Tanah Merah.
Demolition of houses being built on state land was not politically motivated, says Land and Survey Department officer
KUCHING: The demolition of 24 houses being built on state land at Kampung Samariang Tanah Merah on Dec 4 has nothing to do with political affiliation of the owners of the structures.
Refuting an online news report claiming that the houses were demolished because the owners were supporters of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), an officer of the Land and Survey Department said the exercise was a pre-emptive measure.
He explained that none of the houses were occupied as they were being built by some people who intended to squat on the state land.
He added that if the structures were not removed before the would-be squatters move in, the authorities would find it much harder to move them once they established a colony there.
All structures in the same area as Hariah’s have been demolished, except her house.
Kampung Samariang Tanah Merah is located near Kampung Samariang Bentara — a former squatters settlement where the residents were granted plots for their houses after settling there for a number of years.
A villager known only as Haji Bidi, 63, from Kampung Samariang Bentara said Land and Survey Department was not wrong in demolishing the structures as they were erected on state land.
“It is not true that the government demolished the structures there because the owners are opposition supporters,” said Bidi.
Bidi, who is originally from Asajaya, said he moved to Kampung Samariang Bentara as a squatter back in 1997.
Tired of the constant threat of eviction, he bought a low cost unit at Bandar Baru Samariang.
Hariah looking out from her Tanah Merah house, where she lives with her husband and youngest son.
However, in 2012, the government gave the villagers land titles to stay on after a perimeter survey was carried out.
“Now, I am staying at Bandar Baru Samariang and leave this house for my second daughter who has three children,” said Haji Bidi.
The only house at Tanah Merah that has been spared in the Dec 4 operation is occupied by Hariah Bakar, 70, with her husband and youngest son.
They are originally from Kampung Pulau Salak but were forced from their home as the operation of a quarry nearby made it unsafe to stay there.
“We didn’t want to risk our lives with big boulders that could rain down any time after some blasting. So we had no choice but to come over here to start a new life,” Hariah told The Borneo Post with forlorn tearful eyes.
A resident of Samariang Bentara, Haji Bidi pointing to the former location of a well where his family used to draw water for food and bathing before there was availability of piped water supply to the area.
Their house, just about 50 feet away from Kampung Samariang Bentara garbage dump site, is prone to flooding during downpour.
It is hard and not very pleasant living so near a dump site for the past three years, but Hariah and her family feel safe as they do not have to face the danger of falling rocks from the quarry.
Their nightmare began last week when Hariah was confronted by a bulldozer, stern looking enforcement officers and policemen while her son and husband were away.
“They just appeared one day when I was alone. They wanted to bulldoze my house and there were men carrying big guns surrounding my house. But I stood up to them because I have no place to go.
“They chopped down all the pillars of our new house which we have erected just right beside our house and now, we don’t know what to do anymore,” she lamented.
Hariah trying to cut open an old coconut in front of her front door before extracting the milk to make some ‘kuih’.
She said they have no means to buy a house as they scrape by with the earnings of her fisherman husband, the pay of her son who worked as a grass cutter and her monthly RM300 from the Welfare Department.
“If I have known that this is what will happen to us, I would rather choose some place by a river bank infested by crocodiles and rather be eaten alive.
“And if they really force us to move out from here, we hope the government will have sympathy on us and give us a piece of land to stay. We don’t mind building our house from scratch again,” she pleaded.
In the meantime she and her family live in constant fear that the enforcement officers would turn up again and demolish their house.