Kampung Baru Malays missing out on Warisan project, says FT delegate

Kampung Baru Malays missing out on Warisan project, says FT delegate
Saturday October 23, 2010

THE Malays in Kuala Lumpur missed a golden opportunity to get directly involved in the RM5bil Warisan Merdeka project when the Govern-ment decided to build it near Stadium Merdeka.

They missed out because not many Malays owned land near the stadium, said Federal Territories delegate Johari Abdul Ghani.

He felt that Kampung Baru would have been a better location for the huge project as nearly 60ha of land there would have been owned by Malays.

“I am quite sure the Kampung Baru residents would have been happy to take part in such a development project as it offers numerous benefits, including better land appreciation,” he said, when debating the motion on economy at the Umno assembly.

The Warisan Merdeka project is a massive urbanisation project centred on a 100-storey building to be developed by national investment corporation, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and close to a heritage enclave that include Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara.

Johari regretted that PNB had overlooked the prospect of getting the direct involvement of the Malays by not considering Kampung Baru as the project site.

Pahang representative Suhaimi Sulong raised the issue of providing graduates with relevant skills for the country’s future needs and urged the Government to review the current education system.

He claimed more than half of local university graduates were jobless as they only had paper qualifications while most employers prefered those with skills.

Johor delegate Ayub Jamil reminded the Government to follow up with affirmative action on all “transformation” initiatives that it had announced.

“There had been far too many plans and debates in the past – but the implementation had been disappointing.

“Only with real action can we succeed,” he said.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/23/nation/7286002&sec=nation