Kota Damansara, 20 May 2008
It was a first step to victory for Dr. Nasir the socialist ADUN for Kota Damansara and the residents affected by the construction of the Carrefour Hypermarket in Section 11 Kota Damansara, when the Carrefour representative agreed to consider a relocation.
In a heated meeting chaired by the Local Council Exco, Ronnie Liu at his office, Carrefour the developer Melati Ehsan and PKNS failed to convince the residents of DiVilla and Gugusan Dedap that the proposed Carrefour hypermarket will not affect the lives of the neighbouring residents.
“We will ensure that there will not be any cybercafé or video game outlet in Carrefour. We will have security to forbid children in school uniform to enter into Carrefour” explained Mr. Sim the Business Development and Expansion Manager representative from Carrefour. The residents brushed aside the proposal as being pathetic and insisted that their core problems were not resolved.
The residents insisted that the developer cannot build a hypermarket less than 20 metres away from people’s houses and the school. The only solution was for Carrefour to relocate. With the intention of getting market share and to compete with other Hypermarket’s like Tesco and Giant, Carrefour kept insisting that the hypermarket will not cause noise and traffic problem in the area. “Why do we need a Carrefour, when Giant is only 600 metres away!” questioned the residents.
The land of the proposed site was initially owned by PKNS, but sold to Bonus Focus under PKNS privatization programme. The PKNS representative was trying to convince Ronnie Liu that, the land is of commercial status and was planned for double story shoplots. ” Since it is of commercial status, what is so different between a shoplot and a Carrefour” explained PKNS.
Clearly irritated by her remarks Dr.Nasir said “.. that if the residents are not happy with this project, than as the ADUN of Kota Damansara, I am also not happy”. ” You cannot simply convert and build a hypermarket in the centre of a residential area ” said Dr.Nasir. ” We should look into rezoning that area, maybe to built a institution or a college.”
Derek Frenandez, the lawyer representing the residents, confirmed that the State Government has the powers to rezone the area, so that no hypermarket can be built there.
Unable to make his way through, finally the Carrefour representative announced that he is open for suggestions, and if the State Government and PKNS could facilitate an alternate site, then they would relocate.
Still the representative from PKNS was not willing to give up her argument and thus became the laughing stock of everyone when she said that “Carrefour is not a hypermarket but a supermarket”. The residents were furious with PKNS. How stupid could a trained town planner of PKNS be, if they do not know the difference between a hypermarket and a supermarket.
Ronnie ordered for the stop work order to continue until, the State Exco decides on the matter. He also requested PKNS to find a alternate location for Carrefour to relocate.
“The battle is not over yet, the residents have started a signature campaign to protest against Carrefour”, “This is the attitude of big businesses, they don’t give a damn about people’s lives, they are only interested in profits” explained Dr.Nasir.