Landslide 101: Bukit Antarabangsa Tragedy: Are Buyers Innocent?

When it comes to the tragedy at the Bukit Antarabangsa, have you heard of the expression “When the Buying Stops, the Killing Can Too”? That was interesting because now the residents affected by the landslide have decided to sue the Government. Unbelievable! Image source: Wikipedia

From theStar: –

KUALA LUMPUR: Residents affected by last Saturday’s landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa have decided to sue the relevant government authorities for compensation.

A taskforce set up to represent residents affected by the landslide feels it has enough grounds to sue as the authorities failed to act in time to avert the tragedy that has taken four lives so far.

That reminded me of the blog post titled “Bukit Antarabangsa landslide. The rakyat deserve it” (it is a good read):-

You caused the death of your loved ones and probably yourselves too. Most of the buyers are probably politically linked or very rich. You, the greedy rakyat, who refused to learn from the 1993 fiasco, continued to take risks by investing in such rubbish property.

You FEED THE SCUMS that corrupt the system, the government and the property developers. If there wasn’t any demand in the first place, nobody would’ve developed hillside properties, banned/illegal or not. But yet the greed of investment opportunities, the lessons NOT learnt and the cronies that probably benefited from the discounted units manifested itself over the years and this is the result.

Despite the tragedy, the blogger is right!

The developer may have been greedy, and the authorities may have been reckless but who decided to buy those houses and decided to be in the cooking pot in the first place?

I was talking to my buddy Anil yesterday and he said those affected by the landslide in Bukit Antarabangsa deserve it. For one, they have not been staying there for too long – some moved in just 2 – 3 years ago. They should have been aware of the Highland Tower tragedy, which happened 15 years ago (just 1.5 km away?). Despite that, they still choose to move in and live in danger. Why should anyone else be made responsible for this mishap now?

Secondly most of the residents there were rich enough to have alternative plans. They could have moved out to safer grounds. It was not like they were poor squatters who had no money and means to find safer shelter.

The wealthy chose to take the risk and lived on the hills, very well knowing of the danger of landslides and yet when tragedy happens, all blame points to the developer and local authorities. But what about the buyers themselves? Are they going to pay for the rescue operations that have been mounted using public funds?

Listen to this: –

Taskforce chairman Datuk M. Muniandy said the committee had engaged lawyers to prepare the lawsuit and identify the authorities to be named in the suit.

“We have strong evidence to back the suit because residents had reported several incidents from about two years ago that seemed to point to problems in the stability of the slope.

The residents already know that the slope was not stable 2 years ago and all they chose to do was to complain to the authorities. What do they expect the authorities to do? Spend millions of ringgit from public funds stabilising the slope so that some rich dudes could live higher than the rest of us and show off his richness?

Further, it is akin to rub it in when you find a special postal service, special shuttle service, special mamak food counter, quickest fix water and electricity supplies for the Bukit Antarabangsa residents. I wonder whether it will be the same in some poor residential areas in a similar tragedy.