Tan Chuan Hong, Chairman of the Barisan Nasional Bagan Coordinating Committee and Chairman of the MCA Bagan Division, believes that in response to the incident that an apartment in Harbour Place, Butterworth has been fallen to cheap illegal daily rental housing services, Bagan Dalam State Assemblyman, YB Satees A/L Muniany took the people’s public petition as MCA’s cheap political propaganda, this seriously constituted a bad behavior of not respecting democracy and degrades human rights.

He said that after the residents of the apartment publicly petitioned, YB Satees issued a statement stating that this is problem of the apartment management agency, not the state government. Therefore, the management of the apartment should report to the police.

“The arrogant and disregarding public opinion response from YB Satees highlights this people’s representative’s shirking of responsibilities. The elected assemblymen receive monthly salaries, he shouldn’t take “this is not state government’s affairs” as an excuse especially when YB Satees served as a counselor of Seberang Perai before winning the election.

"For example, a shop in the district that is listed for commercial use later wants to open as coffee shop. Does this coffee shop need to apply for a business license? The answer is yes. The same comply with relevant regulations. Similar to certain apartment in Harbour Place, Butterworth which are operated as daily rental services, similar as Motel or hotel. Isn't it under the jurisdiction of local and state governments? Therefore, YB Satees cannot say that this is not related to state government."

He said that YB Satees’s response was also contradictory, because in the statement, YB Satees stated that the local government had no substantive power to prevent the owner of the unit from “commercializing” its unit, yet also that said he had written to MBSP mayor reporting the problem and asking the mayor to suspend the daily rental service in the apartment temporarily.

Chuan Hong believes that even if the local government cannot eliminate illegal daily rental service unit owners from providing rental services to their units, the local government should at least investigate whether the relevant daily rental service owners are operating legally. It should be enforced.

Tan Chuan Hong reiterated that the MCA Bagan Division has never been afraid of troubles, and not a trouble maker, but definitely voice of people. In this incident, MCA never lead members or residents make baseless accusations against YB Satees and local government. In fact, this was because the residents of the apartment felt helpless and intolerable so they turned to MCA for help and exposing the matter.

He also emphasized that because YB Satees was unable to resolve the appeal of the residents of the apartment, and believed that this was not problem of the state government, leading to the case of 16th this month that the guest house tenants beat the security guard before checking out, causing bloodshed. This apartment make residents upset further.

Caption: (From left) Resident representatives of the apartment, Mr. Woo (42), Mr. Liap (40) and Fendi (38), and Tan Chuan Hong (2nd right) meet at Monday night to review the latest development progress of the apartment after petition.

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