Mon, Dec 7, 2009 - BUTTERWORTH: More than 100 residents of the Rumah Hijau longhouses in Mak Mandin here staged a peaceful protest against the state government for not resolving their housing problem.

The residents from 75 families urged the current administration to build low-cost flats at the present site as promised by the former Barisan Nasional state government.

The families were placed in the longhouses when the BN state government acquired their land to create the nation's first industrial estate at Mak Mandin in the eighties.

The people were meant to live there temporarily, until the government found alternative permanent housing for them.

It has now been 36 years since they were moved into Taman Hijau, and their problem still remains unsolved.

The demonstrating residents called on the DAP-led Pakatan Rakyat state government to honour the agreement made between the developer of the privatised project and the then state government, which was signed in 2007.

The residents distributed a copy of the agreement letter to pressmen here yesterday.

The letter states that low-cost houses will be built for the affected residents at the present site.

Residents association chairman A. Tamilselvam said the residents would continue to stage demonstrations unless the state government helped resolve their problem.

"We don't understand why the state is ignoring our appeal. The developer had agreed at that time to build low-cost houses to relocate the affected residents."

The current state government had convinced more than 125 families from the area to move to the completed 21-storey low-cost flats at Ampang Jajar about two kilometers away from the present site.