I have friends who are court interpreters and they tell me this … after a case the litigant who is ignorant about law will ask them “Is it true the judge was paid off?”. The lawyer tells this to the client. This is sad …

Best of all today we see cracks in the whole PR, its so so sad. Today its DAP Kedah, yesterday its PAS Youth who wants to go for some whatever they wanna call talks. Then you got HINDRAF who are making Indian movies. What comes tomorrow?

Why can’t something which has been handed to DAP/PKR/PAS on a silver platter be cherished and well capitalised? The have a nice rally last night to bash BN and then proudly announce what happened before only merely 4,000 people and now PR looks so so stupid.

Trust me Najib and BN are laughing tonight and planning how to make the cracks bigger. 1Malaysia is not cracking, its PR.

Why is this happening? Because we have clowns for politicians. No. 1 clown is DSAI, then not far behind are people like LKS, Kepala Pusing and a few more.

Tell me, can any of them ever earn the respect of the rakyat like what Nik Aziz has? LGE needs to learn to be more suave and work on his own PR but he has the calling to be a good politician unlike his dad, sorry to say.

Go read Malaysia Today, all those who were blindly supporting PR with hope are now dissenting. The dissent has grown … BN is laughing. I think the dream of a better tomorrow has burst.

Where is Malaysia’s hope? What will we leave for our children?

p.s. also please save it if you want to post that BN has screwed us over for over 50 years, that is lame and boring. PR made a promise, they have failed to deliver.

After reading Jeffrey’s analysis on the litigation situation and Land Office tug-of-war situation, it is crystal clear that the developer will not likely be able to reap an attractive profit margin if the Penang State Government refuses to cooperate with the developer for the case of Kampung Buah Pala.

If I were the developer, I would had much better picked up a phone and made a call to Lim Guan Eng offering the Penang State Government to buy back that piece of land located at Kampung Buah Pala at my cost price immediately in order to cut losses now before additional holding costs would be billed to me by all my creditors and loan borrowers. What help can the judiciary system offer me if I as a developer is working against the Penang State Government and against the public opinion? Even if I am to jack up the sale price of my properties which are to be built at project site of Kampung Buah Pala, I am afraid that the prospective property purchasers may shun buying from me, lest the Penang State Government may delay preparation of strata titles for ever and ever again until the purchasers will lose all opportunities to reap good profit from the property investment due to lack of strata titles.

The Ulu Temiang (Seremban) squatters, which brought suit against State govt for its alienation to developer Lesco based it on certain letters prior issued by district officers to each of them that they would eventually obtain titles on the state land on which they squatted. So the estoppel was raised though not sure whether one calls it equitable or peroprietary.

Om your second posting – “DSAI is talking nonsense when he speaks about doing away with English” – this is admittedly a matter of concern, he (seems) to be falling back on the race card, which to me suggests he could be real worried about the imminent Saiful case against him. Which may or may not (depending on view point) be one of motivations why a certain section in PAS may tend to veer towards Unity Talk with UMNO, thinking that it may be a surer way to power or sharing of power than present arrangements of relying on Pakatan Rakyat (held together and led by him) to reach that destination.

PR needs to look at itself again. PKR is up to nonsense with their boycotts and frogs and By Elections, PAS is up to nonsense with the unity talks and trying to fish one ADUN of BN …

DSAI is talking nonsense when he speaks about doing away with English, if not he is sitting quietly behind as the Tok Dalang, useless man!

Go read the MT comments about DSAI, you will see he was the evil one behind our education system. You think a leopard will change its spots?

Last night at the PJ rally only 4,000 turned up! Where are the hundreds of thousands? No more now la … people are fed up with PR nowadays. ITS A FACT.

You are aware of the pure forms of proprietary estoppel, representation is made, acted upon etc etc … in squatter cases its not as such. Even if it were it was to the grandfather.

Yes, I read law and I dealt with many squatters in my time, I evicted them all. Dealing with them is nuts. Standard cases where they claim equitable estoppel is usually sorted out by paying them the value of the HOUSE itself. Usually, tens of thousands only. Even with an offer of RM100K they will ask for RM200K.

I cleared homes, temples and graveyards in my time. I always pushed for very fair compensation even when we can go for broke BUT they always push their luck and always have lost in the courts. They then end up with nothing then lament the developer is unfair.

Give you a good example. In Kulim Hitec Park we had a very small estate temple that did not want to move. The offer to move was RM400K and a piece of land nearby. Well, the so called temple committee wanted like RM700K. So we went for broke … they got nothing. Why? Simple … temples cannot claim estoppel because its an association, the NLC does not give rights to associations but only individuals and companies.

Hence, reading this I have no sympathy for the squatters. LGE is right … he has done all he can. Why should we spend RM20M just for some jokers who are financially underprivileged? If we want to be a socialist state then are we all willing to pay high taxes like in the other countries?

Talk is cheap, yeah, LGE just make a compulsory acquisition then pay it cheap cheap etc. Be in his shoes then try it.

Also Jeff … try delaying cases, it will not work. Cases are delayed usually because the lawyer is not ready and have not done their job. If the file is ‘lost’ for more than twice, trust me the Registrar will be in trouble with the lawyer. If that does not happen then the lawyer is at fault. Delay is not a viable option nowadays to stall people. But I guess you are just joking la … hahahahaahaaa

Hindraf is a radical movement and will friends and foe will get hurt in what they do. Friends of Hindraf will let them hurt them a but but there is a limit to it. In addition, Hindraf future is focussing on hurting their foes a lot more, much more, than carelessly hurting their friends.

Here’s where you could squeeze the developer : it has to pay the patrons and instigators and ring leaders of those who brought legal action against developer to discontinue their case. If not drag the developer for over 10 years in court and its projects cannot lift off, it may even lose profits if not capital outlay which sometimes come out to hundreds of millions.

So you tell the developer – brother you either lose RM 200 million in profit if my injunction and legal case drag on for 10 years OR you could still make your RM200 million by me withdrawing the case so that youy could launch your development scheme immediately before cycle turns – provided……..you pay me lah RM10 million.

Get the picture? I have seen it happened before.

Mostly no – because our Land Code based on Australian Torren System, and governing all lands for which individual titles subsist, does not recognise English concept of Adverse Possession (a 12 yr benchmark) that OrangRojak raised.

Occasionally no : Now clear at all that our Land Code provisions override equitable considerations – Lord Dennings estoppel principles (based on reliance on benefit/detriment) that NH Chan once referred to.

SpeakUp, you apparently read law – this equity principle based on English case of Inwards Bakers was raised – relied upon- in 1980 by Ulu Temiang (Seremban) 7 squatters when they, represented by DAP Seremban lawyers, brought action against Negri Sembilan State Govt for alienating land (earlier promised to them in writing by District officers) to KL’s developer Lesco. Federal Court (Eusoffe) circumvented this point. Did not rule Equity not applicable just because Land code provisions. Merely said Equity was of no application in cases involving overriding Public Interest. Something the Federal Court even then slanted in favour of Govt when it seemed to say that alienation to who and who and who was State Authority’s prerogative based on what it deemed public interest. (Of course we now know better that what is public interest is often private interest).

It is a NO! You can’t do things like that. Beside the owner of the land now, no other developer will dare to touch that land anyway.

This is not about making new friends.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng should really watch his style. His way of conflict resolution and confronting everyone is not doing any good to his image nor his administration. I have always been of the opinion that he needs a PR firm or a spokesperson. Sadly, 15 months after gaining power, and 6 months after he said he would be less confronting, he is still very much his old self. – khensthoth

LGE needs to build up some tact in making statements. He needn’t have gone into racial stuff like tamil signboards and and indian DCM etc. That’s just playing the same game as BN. Offering little gestures here and there to soothe particular racial communities. – Katdog

I did not find anything wrong with what LGE said. From what I see, there are only two reasons why your comments seem to weigh on the side of criticism towards LGE, firstly, you guys are being over sensitive, secondly, you guys don’t really understand the situation.

I think you’re a naive bleeding-heart champion who thinks by mere reasoning everything will be fine. This is not the UK, you know where the government there is amenable to public concern; where they follow parliamentary etiquette and transparency. By the way how many years have you been living in this country: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … years?

This is Bolehland, where the BN federal government is so heartless, will not listen and does not follow the law. You think since anyone who is the State government can just wave a magic wand and every problem can be solved? The Penang State government is not under the BN coalition but is its rival. If you have not seen how the federal government has been denying funds and using all the federal apparatus against the Pakatan, you must be a real bloody nincompoop. Sorry for my strong language. The federal government under the BN is still obscenely powerful and if the Penang state government is not careful, it would be its undoing. Just witness how Karpal Singh’s impatient outburst against the Perak sultan give ammunition to the BN to attack the Pakatan coalition?

I think there is a typo in the above sentence. The last words “of Malays” should be much readable if they are changed to “or Malays”.