Star City buyers seek new state govt’s help
Member of Parliament Chan Foong Hin sees light at the end of the tunnel for the over a decade long abandoned Star City eyesore here.
KOTA KINABALU: Member of Parliament Chan Foong Hin sees light at the end of the tunnel for the over a decade long abandoned Star City eyesore here.
He said this in spite of a September 2 report in a local daily about an allegation by anonymous Star City unit buyers that a RM2 company is trying to take over the project from Petrofiq Sdn Bhd.
“Definitely the new government should listen to the people and also if the little Napoleon in the state GLC (government link company) try to make things funny, we should teach them a lesson,” said Chan when attending a gathering of Persatuan Pembeli Lot-lot Kedai Star City (PEKESTAR) at the Star City abandoned project site here yesterday.
“Today, they want to share their anger. No more dilly dally for this project. This is a new era of Malaysia, new era of Sabah. The government servant or GLC, decision makers, they are not the boss. Basically, the rakyat are the boss. So we should do something according to their needs and I don’t want to have another eyesore in this Kota Kinabalu city centre.
“This issue has been dragged on for so many years. I think we will see the light at the end of the tunnel but please hasten the process. I also don’t want to go to the newspaper to act like that because even though I used to be the opposition but now we are the government. Basically, we should avoid doing these kinds of stunt but the people are frustrated so we should come here to listen to them even though they want to scold me,” he added.
PEKESTAR deputy president said owners of over 240 units of the joint venture project with Sabah Urban Development Corporation (SUDC) project have repeatedly appealed to the previous government but to no avail.
“Nothing has come out and so far we are very close to reaching a deal, talking to one company (Petrofiq Sdn Bhd) who are very keen to help us, and are on a win-win situation. We would like to appeal to the new government to look into this issue seriously with the help of YB Chan Foong Hin,” he pleaded.
“With a change of government, we sincerely appeal for a new hope that the new government would take an interest in this matter because most of the buyers they are not well to do people,” chimed in PEKESTAR president Philip Liew.
“I am only a retiree. I retired from government service, I dumped in my gratuity, everything into this lot, which has been abandoned for the past 10 years. So now I am living from hand to mouth so you see perception that most buyers are rich, that one is not true. We are suffering and almost all of us have got our bank loan and we are still servicing our bank loan.
“Action has got to start from the state government. SUDC is subordinate to the state government so whatever instructions given to SUDC, it must be implemented so that is why we are appealing,” he added.
Also attending the gathering was Luyang assemblyman Phoong Jin Zhe.
Star City lot buyers signed the S&P more than 12 years ago and the original project was supposed to be completed 36 months afterwards.