Be vigilant for greed is always present..

The fact that my land remains as big as it is from the time I bought it from the developer and has not changed is the result of luck and facing the forces of what I believe to be corruption.

The proof as seen in the drawn map of the developer is evident to this day that a developer, the developer of Taman Arkid, Sungai Petani, did drew a plan with a piece of my land as a side road so that he could use the land on his side for the building of another terrace house. Despite the developer clearly attempting to turn part of my land into a side road. the land office and the municipal council approved the developer's plan.

When I first complained to the municipal council about the attempt to turn part of my land into part of the developer's side road, I was told it was necessary so as to allign the back lane of the row of houses behind my house with the intended side-road. Perhaps, someone could have given up the matter as a reason by the authorities was extended and who can claim the authorities are wrong.

Fortunately, I have been involved in my place's residential association for the last thirty one years with more than twenty years as its secretary. In those twenty or more years we have fought for the residents' rights which are often trodden on. Therefore, when the municipal council told me that the planned back-lane had to be in alignment with the other back-lane, I went out to gather information on this. I went to other officers in the land office as well as the municipal council without letting on about the case in question. I also discussed this with the residents' association committee members and some of them are very knowledgeable people about this matter. One of them, our chairman is a lawyer working in a consumers' association while another is a retired person who has experiences on such matters. And I was told that a back lane must be straight but it needed not to be in alignment with the other back lane. When I had confirmed this truth, I approached the municipal council again to confront him with the knowledge I had. When he refused to do any changes or act on it, I went out and requested to meet the president of the municipal council. The president agreed that what I knew was true and phoned the officer concerned, giving him instructions to take action on it. Then i was told to meet the officer concerned again and this time the officer phoned the developer to stop him from building that last house so that the area would be the back lane. I firmly told the officer I would be watching every move on that spot and should my land be dug up. I would lodge a police report. I definitely did not trust that man.

How did I become aware of such a devious plan. Well, it all started a few years earlier. One morning as I was tending to a tree in my garden, some people were doing surveys. The guy who did the survey reached under my fencing and hammered in something into the ground. Puzzled, I enquired what was the purpose of that embedded piece of metal. I was told that my fence was on other people's land and I have encroached onto the person's land. Since the fencing was supplied and constructed by the developer of my housing estate it could not be possible and since my fencing had not been removed or changed in anyway, I did not think about as I thought it must have been the surveyor's mistake. And I left it at that although i was suspicious and did mention it to my wife.

Then when the Arkid developer started building the houses, my mind took me back to the day I met those surveyors. I wondered about what had been said. The unease growing at the back of my mind kept me thinking of those surveyors' words. So it was that I went to the new developer's office to have a look at the plan of its housing estate. Studying that plan I realised that my diagonal fencing at the side had been straightened and my land was with the shape of a rectangle instead of it being triangular. I confirmed that that land was where my house stood and still stands.
With that confirmation I started on ensuring that my land would not be the one encroached upon by this developer so that he could make an extra profit with the building of one more house by using part of my land as the back lane.

Only when i had found out all that did the developer sent people to negotiate to buy that part of my land. I flatly refused not matter the price for I hate people who try to cheat and use their wealth to carry out their wishes without considering the feelings of others.

Of course, I won and still has my part of the land with me although the map still exists to show that someone did do something to take away part of my land without my knowledge.