Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Istana Zakaria under construction

The side view of Istana Zakaria
The front view
The rear car porch
Situated beside the Workers Institute of Technology, in Pandamaran, Klang and within the vicinity of a low cost house area, Kampung Idaman, a majestic bungalow house having the makings of a palace is in the course of construction. This majestic mansion is known to the locals belongs to Dato Zakaria Deros, the Selangor State Assemblyman for Port Klang.

Journalists from the Chinese, English and Tamil press visiting the site with me this morning literally held our breath while taking photographs of the bungalow. We were simply amazed at the soon-to-be gigantic and splendid building constructed on the land of approximately one acre in size.

My conservative estimate of the costs of land, construction, fittings, fixtures and other interior decoration of the building will be not less than RM5 million.

If it were true that the mansion belongs to Zakaria, he would be obliged to explain to the people as to how did he manage to amass the wealth to afford him the palace within less than 2 terms as elected representative. The official record shows that at present Zakaria still lives in a low cost (but well-decorated) house in Kampong Idaman itself. It will be a multiple jump in status for him, or anyone for the matter, to shift to the palace from a low cost house. The Anti Corruption Agency and the Income Tax Department should immediately conduct an investigation. A simple calculation, as has always been applied by the Income Tax Department on the tax evaders, will give the people a prompt answer to the doubt.

We also observed that there was no signboard stating the title of the land, the owner, the contractor, the plan approval date and other construction information as required by the local authority to be put up at the construction site. On prime facie, this is a construction without approved building plan as required by the building by-laws and the local authority has the power to demolish the bungalow for the breach.

For the past 2 years, the Selangor state government and the local authorities in Selangor, including the Klang Municipal Council (MPK), have been invoking the draconian Regulation 10 of the Essential (Clearing of Squatters) Regulation 1969 to demolish squatters in Selangor. Under the regulations, any building structure without approved plan from the local authorities are defined as squatter hut and shall be liable for demolition after being given a 7-day notice.

My information shows that no one has ever submitted the building plan of the palace to the MPK for approval. Under the circumstances, the MPK should forthwith invoke the regulation by giving a 7-day notice and thereafter demolish the palace without fear or favour, or otherwise, it will be guilty of favouritism. The state government will then also lose its moral authority to implement the ‘zero squatter’ policy by demolishing the houses of the poor while allowing the squatter palace of an elected representative to stand alone amidst the low cost houses in Kampong Idaman.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is more to come as we can see how serious of Malaysia's corruption which involves government itself. Bravo Mr. Teng!

Anonymous said...

Mr Teng,

Good job...please keep us posted and if possible post Zakaria's picture in this blog.

Anonymous said...

Sultan asked him to datang menghadap and clarify, he went on hiding. Now he's taken by God, it's all between him and God now, and he cannot runaway and hide anymore.

Bygningsentreprise said...

I like your article and the photos you have put in this article are really FABULOUS! Thank you for sharing and congrats!