terrano
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To develop or not to develop - 2002/08/16 12:13
When REACH launched its signature campaign against unchecked development, the "green" voice resonated through the hills and valleys of the Cameron highlands. Support was strong and indeed, the response was actually beyong expectation. But like any democratic society, REACH also heard voices of dissent from the general community on what we were doing. And unlike REACH who has managed to group together like-minded folks, this group of people are not cohesive and do not have a collective voice. I want to be fair to those who have given me their opposing views and in the name of justice I will put down their "opinion" here so that the readers may give their own opinion.
There live in Cameron Highlands, a (significant) group of people who have not bought any property here to date. They live in rented dwellings and trade from rented shops. They are from the lower to middle class society. They want to buy apartments so they don't have to pay rent (about RM400 - RM700 monthly). They want to buy shops for the same reason as monthly rental for shops in Tanah Rata and Brinchang goes for RM 2000 to RM 2800 monthly for the ground floor alone. At the moment, they cannot do so because the price of apartments are around RM100,000 to RM300,000 while the price of shops are around RM400,000 to RM1,000,000 for a a two-storey to four-storey shoplot. AND the fact of the matter is, the price of property will not go down as long as no new apartments and shops are built! For them, new shops and apartments mean the rental will go down, sale prices will drop and they will be able to afford to buy or rent them.
They don't see anything wrong with housing projects that have been approved by the government assuming that everything is above board, meaning that EIA approval has been obtained and all the Hills Development guidelines have been followed. In their opinion, housing (and shops) projects are just a matter of supply and demand. As long as they is a demand, there is no over-development.
I will not give my comments for now. I hope the above group of people will be able to address this issue here in cyberspace. I must also highlight the fact that this is not a suvery as this is totally biased as only a certain group of individuals have access to the Internet or know how to use it. Rather, this is just a place for us to put down our views so that all of us will be a little wiser.
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