Kg Chubadak
Sep 21st, 2006 by Tian
The ancesters of Kampong Chubadak residents migrated from Bukit Tinggi areas Minangkabau and settled here since 1820s, or earlier. The place must be quite deserted then. I remembered some 15 years ago, my impression of Gombak was a rural area, with several Orang Asli settlements. Today urbanization has totally encircled the area, leaving only a few enclaves of traditional settlements.
The concern of the residents is more than compensation. It is a sense of attachment, or love for their ancestral land. The survival of culture is also tied closely with land. The kampung folks are not defending land property. Land property in capitalist market is convertible to monetary value. Imagine 200 years of history uprooted. The destruction of the homeland equals to the disappearance of a culture.
Despite the hoo-hah about defending Malay sovereignty, the authorities’ approach toward culture and heritage is simply materialistic. However in this case, the authorities have taken a hard stand: no even willing to discuss about compensation.
With the building of DUKE Highway, all the remaining traditional villages on Malay reserved land (Kampong Chubadak, Kampong Puah, Kampong Padang Balang) will be lost. It is sad to imagine the offspring of adventurous pioneers would end up impoverished
what about property rights of the middle class? don’t they deserve their fair share of urbanization? a small but growing middle class in kl can’t afford more affluent neighborhoods such as bangsar or damansara. so we buy in areas such as gombak. because it’s near (circa 10-12 km) to the city. places like gombak receive the bad press like being dirty, jammed, lack infra, etc because of this urban poor phenomenon. property values increase slowly in gombak whereas the rest of kl progresses. this highway is the one thing that could change that. it could lift home prices and give paying residents (buyers instead of squatters) a chance at profit. look at pj, bangsar,damansara - all originally old low to middle income estates which have moved on to become high quality places to live at. just because a few hundred families refuse to purchase their residence, a whole tax-paying homeowner middle class can’t reap the benefits of urbanization. it’s 2006. nothing’ free anymore. if i can take a mortgage, why can’t they do the same?