KUALA LUMPUR: Barisan Nasional's Titiwangsa parliamentary candidate Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani today told rival Khalid Samad to stop creating confusion among the people on the Sungai Baru flats and Kampung Baru land issues.
The Pakatan Harapan candidate had accused Johari of washing his hands of land ownership issues in Kampung Baru.
The former federal territory minister said Johari could not solve the problems in the area, despite being a finance minister while serving as Titiwangsa parliamentarian from 2013 to 2018.
In response, Johari pointed out Khalid's failure to resolve the said issues when the latter was the federal territories minister for 22 months.
"Khalid should stop spinning the Kampung Baru land acquisition as if BN has acquired the land," said Johari during his campaign walkabout at the Jelatek People Housing Project (PPR).
He said the Kampung Baru land acquisition issue differed from the Sungai Baru flats case as those in Kampung Baru were land owners.
"The issue with Sungai Baru flats was that developers had acquired signatures from 89 per cent of the residents to move out for redevelopment.
"The rest were evicted using the Land Acquisition Act because the residents owned their units but not the land.
"He (Khalid) should have protected the people's interest in the Sungai Baru flats case and not allowing the residents to sign a lopsided agreement with the developer during his time as the Federal Territories minister," Johari said.
Johari added that during his tenure as the Titiwangsa member of parliament (MP) in 2017, developers had approached him to get the residents' signatures. But he declined due to questionable track records.
"I don't want it to become a white elephant project like the Jalan Pekeliling flats, abandoned for 14 years."
Johari also took a swipe at Khalid on his Kampung Baru land acquisition claims.
"Leaders should tell the truth, multitask, fight for the people's rights and devote themselves to their constituency, not by offering like RM1,000 per square foot (psf) on the Kampung Baru land acquisition.
"Who offered this? Private companies? The government? Did we table it in Parliament? And if so, can the company fork out RM10 billion just for land acquisition?"
The buyout package consisted of a payment of RM850 psf with a further remaining RM150 in the form of shares in the special purpose vehicle of the development project planned.
The plan for the last remaining Malay enclave in Kuala Lumpur was widely criticised by residents, many of whom had disagreed to the proposal.