KUALA LUMPUR: Villagers of Kampung Setia Jaya here are having sleepless nights as they are on the verge of losing their homes due to a court order obtained by the landowner for them to vacate the land.
Among the villagers affected by the court order include 68-year-old Samiyah Umri who has yet to secure rental accommodation due to financial constraints.
"I am already old. Even if I am asked to move (to another place), where can I live?
"Rentals have become more expensive to the point that it is no longer affordable, especially for people like me who are no longer working.
"If I choose to stay with my children, I am afraid that I will only burden them since they are also renting," she told Harian Metro today.
It is learned that about 500 residents at the village are affected by the court order after the landowner, which is a higher education institution, used legal channels to obtain the directive for the villagers to evict the land within 18 months.
Another villager, Mohd Ali Arsad, 76, said he would comply with the directive to vacate his home.
Mohd Ali, however, hoped that villagers affected by the court order would be compensated either in the form of relocation to other housing areas or money.
"Please consider providing us with fair compensation.
"If they ask me to move, where will I go? I have no other place to go to," said Mohd Ali, who has been living in the area for the past 46 years. He added that villagers in the area are not trespassers.
"We are not trespassers. Initially, this area was an estate. In 1976, I cleared the rubber trees and then built this house," he said.
Kampung Setia Jaya Action Committee member Mohd Zamree Zulbairi, 49, agreed with Mohd Ali that villagers affected by the court order should be provided with fair compensation.
"Please be fair to us too. None of us are wealthy," the father of seven said.
