Thousands of building to fall with Mazu?

By Charlie Rudai

KUDAT: Thousands of buildings in Sabah may have to be demolished. According to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), this is one of the implications of the judiciary’s silence on whether the Mazu statue in Kudat is an illegal structure.

The statue was at the centre of a court battle that ended last week when the Federal Court effectively turned down a request by its promoters to appeal against the state government's decision to stop the construction.

Mazu is a Chinese goddess of the sea whom fishermen and sailors worship as their patron. Her statue in Kudat was the idea of former chief minister Chong Kah Kiat. Construction began in early 2006 with the Kudat Town Board’s approval, but the state government ordered a halt in October that year following a fatwa by the Sabah Mufti.

In December 2008, Chong, as chairman of the Kudat Thean Hou Charitable Foundation, sought a court declaration that the town board’s approval was valid and that the fatwa violated Article 11 of the Federal Constitution. He sued Chief Minister Musa Aman and three others, including the Kudat Town Board, which withdrew its approval in November 2007.

The defendants sought to strike out the suit, but the Kota Kinabalu High Court dismissed the action in April last year. They appealed and won their case on Aug 5. The Court of Appeal ruled that Chong did not have the legal standing to initiate his suits.

Chong then filed for leave to appeal to the Federal Court, which resulted in last week’s decision. The Federal Court did not give a reason for rejecting the appeal.

Unanswered questions

LDP’s Tanjung Kapor chief, Teo Chee Kang, said the courts had thus left the merit of the case undecided.

Speaking at the LDP Tanjung Kapor annual general conference here on Sunday, he said: “While the court’s decision should be respected, it has left many questions unanswered.”

He noted that during the hearing of the case, the government invoked “a whole new ground” for disallowing the statue: that the plan for its erection did not obtain the prior approval of the Central Town and Country Planning Board.

He said this raised the question of the legality of other structures approved by local authorities but not the board.

“It is common knowledge that before April 2008, save those which involved re-zoning, development plans did not have to go through the Central Board,” he said.

“What about the hundreds or perhaps thousands of buildings and structures that are found all over Sabah?”

Included among these “hundreds or thousands” are the 1Borneo building, the Suria Building and the Waterfront Project.

“Are they illegal structures? Should they be demolished? In the interest of the public at large, someone must answer these questions,” Teo said.