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18 families
evacuated
after road
collapse
by Charles Ramendran
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 118 resi-
dents were evacuated yesterday follow-
ing the collapse of part of a road which
runs alongside the contruction site of a
wholesale mall at Jalan San Peng here.
The Public Works Department (PWD)
yesterday directed members of 18
families occupying the PWD and Kuala
Lumpur City Hall quarters to move out
immediately. PWD Deputy Director-
General II Datuk Mohd Noor Yaacob said
AFPPIX
the order was issued after it was found
that 22 units of the quarters, including
12 owned by PWD, four of which were
unoccupied, were unsafe.
The collapsed portion, measuring
about 80m in length and about 35m in
depth, is normally a hive of activity for
morning and night market traders. The
incident happened at 5pm on Saturday. If
it had happened hours earlier, lives could
have been at stake.
When met yesterday, residents in
the affected area said the disaster was
expected. They are thankful that there
were no casulities when the collapse
took place but shuddered to think about
the impact had it happen sooner.
“The stretch where the road sank is
where a number of peddlers and traders
selling fish and vegetables set up their
stalls every morning and hundreds of
people in the area frequent the place,”
said M. Thirukkumaran, 35, who was
evacuated from his shophouse.
His shoplot had extensive damage
of gaping cracks on the walls and floors
which were cemented over by the
project contractor following repeated
complaints.The project is a five-storey
building billed “Malaysia’s Premier
Wholesale Centre” and is being devel-
oped by Kenanga Wholesale City Sdn
Bhd. Its officials were not available for
comments.
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Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations (Malaysia)
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Loan sharks’ wrath AH LONGS THREATEN LICENSED MONEYLENDERS
FOR TRYING TO HELP VICTIMS REPAY DEBTS
by Tim Leonard its members have earned the wrath
newsdesk@thesundaily.com of loan sharks for helping victims
repay their debts by providing credit
ETALING JAYA: Being territo-
P
facilities based on low interest rates
rial by nature, loan sharks are set by the law.
now using violent tactics against Its president, R.C. Veeraseelan,
licensed money lenders who try said one of its members from Johor,
to help their borrowers get out of the 49-year-old Ghazali Tauhid, now
Ah Long’s trap by negotiating better fears for his life after he was threat-
terms and providing softer loans. ened and assaulted by a group of
The Malaysian Licensed Mon- loan sharks when he stepped in to
eylenders Association (Milma) help the victims.
disclosed yesterday that seven of “Ghazali’s car was damaged, his
Manchester United ‘ondel-ondel’ dolls
P eople dressed as “ondel-ondel” or native dolls play a game of soccer against other dolls, with the
names of Manchester United (MU) players written on the sash, in Jakarta yesterday to express their
anger at the July 17 hotel blasts that prevented MU from playing against Indonesia's all-star football
team. A week after twin suicide blasts in Jakarta killed seven people and marked a return of terror to
Indonesia, police appeared no closer to cracking the terrorist network believed responsible.
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Monday
July 27, 2009
www.sun2surf.com
office splashed with red paint and
his staff threatened when he pro-
vided reasonable lending facilities to
several borrowers who were forced
to overpay the Ah Longs,” said
Veeraseelan in a press conference at
the Milma headquarters yesterday.
“The Ah Longs have also put a
price on his head when he failed to
comply with their request to exit the
business. Milma views this matter
seriously and calls on the police
to bring the culprits to justice,” he
Entertainment
said. Ghazali has lodged more than
a dozen police reports on the threats,
intimidation and assaults at the Johor
Baru police headquarters since early
this year.
On June 10, his car was splashed
with acid when he stepped in to
negotiate on behalf of borrowers
who owed 28 loan sharks a total of
RM105,000. He susbsequently lodged
a police report.
Veeraseelan said six other licensed
moneylenders from Selangor, Perak,
Penang and Sabah suffered similar
consequences this year for doing
the same thing. He said he could not
reveal the names of these licensed
money lenders for safety reasons.
“These Ah Longs feel threatened
when licensed money lenders pro-
vide fair and reasonable lending
rates because it will drive them out
of business.
“They are sucking the poor peo-
ple’s blood with high interest rates
and they don’t want licensed money
lenders to come in and provide fair
rates based on the law,” said Veera-
seelan.
He called on the government to
help eradicate the Ah Long problem
by introducing better strategies and
polices.
“A proper policy ensures the
survival of licensed money lenders
while eliminating opportunities for
Ah Longs to survive. We want more
licensed money lenders to service
the public by providing micro credit
facilities based on rates set by the
law.”
Veerseelan said Milma is also
coming up with a few initiatives to
provide better micro credit facilities,
especially for small businesses and
enterprises based on a community
credit concept.
Milma has 3,000 members nation-
wide who cater to some four million
consumers nationwide.