KOTA KINABALU – After living hand to mouth for years, 66-year-old Chung Nyuk Fung was dealt another blow when she was ordered to evict the flat she has been living in for 18 years.
Her unemployed, disabled husband died three years ago, while her four sons are not around to care for her.
Having moved into the Tg Aru flats in 2004, Chung struggled to raise her children and make rent each month.
Now, her only “income” comes from welfare aid that she gets monthly, which she spends on rent, bills and groceries.
Her oldest, she said, works on a ship, but Covid-19 infected five of his crewmembers and he was forced to stay home for a couple of months.
“He just got back to work in December. He was already broke when Covid-19 hit his ship.”
Her other three sons, she said, moved out when they got married.
Chung is one of the 315 tenants staying in Tg Aru flats that are owned by the Sabah Housing and Town Development Board (LPPB). They are now facing eviction after the agency declared all 11 blocks unsafe.
Chung, who is in her 70s, is perhaps one of the lucky few offered another unit by LPPB.
But, after signing the eviction order on January 7, she said, LPPB has yet to provide her with the keys and documentation for the other unit.
LPPB throws me into a place where the conditions are terrible and far away. I know this place. There are undocumented migrants and also people doing drugs there. The place also has a serious water supply problem.
“I have several health issues. I am diabetic and also have high blood pressure. How much do I have to pay for transport if I need to go to the hospital? Are there any health facilities nearby?
“Whom am I going to call for help if everyone is a stranger? I will be all alone,” said Chung as she burst into tears over what lies ahead if she moves out.
No place to go
Husband and wife, Wong Chee Kiong and Margaret Woo, are also facing similar problems, and with Wong being 77 years old, moving from Tg Aru could be quite a problem.
“We have two children aged 45 and working as mechanics who live with us, while the eldest, my daughter who is 50 years old, has gone to live with her husband in Penampang,” said Woo.
Wong, who was a lorry driver for the Public Works Department, was diagnosed with colon cancer when he retired in 2015.
He also does not have a pension and relies on his children to pay rent and buy food.
“We have no other place to go, too. We can’t afford to buy a house, let alone rent a new place,” said Wong, adding that much of their money had gone to repair their unit after LPPB did not do anything.
All crammed into one unit
Tueh @ Ah Kui Gindob, a 85-year-old grandmother, was all smiles when asked how many people were living in her small flat.
“Altogether, there are seven people – myself and two other children in one room, three of grandchildren in the other room, while my son sleeps on the sofa in the living room.”
Tueh had been moving from one place to another before. Her late husband had applied for a government flat in Kapayan, but was refused. Instead, she was given a unit in Tg Aru some 26 years ago.
She said two of her children are in Keningau and Tenom, while three more are staying with her at the flat.
Two of them do not have stable jobs with one of them suffering from depression, she added.
“You know how it is when they are not highly educated? It is not easy to get a job and tough to keep one,” said Tueh, who is of Dusun ethnicity.
Meanwhile, 69-year-old Dayang Saimah said she had spent thousands to repair her unit when her family moved in in 2007.
“We had just lost our house in a fire that year. When we came in, this unit was flooded and faeces were coming out from the toilet.
“We had reported this to LPPB, but no action was taken. Nothing. We had to rely on a neighbour to help us.
“He helped us with repairs and we paid him for it.”
Dayang lost her eldest son in a hit-and-run during the first lockdown two years ago.
A total of 315 households have been told to move out from the over 50-year-old Tg Aru flats due to safety reasons during the Covid-19 lockdown last year.
A resident task force was formed by tenants demanding a dialogue with LPPB and a win-win solution, which included the board providing a new and safer settlement nearby, but it refused.
A moving day event was organised by LPPB recently and tenants decided to organise a sit-in protest, resulting in LPPB chairman Datuk Masiung Banah saying that tenants can stay as long as they want until given orders to leave.
Until then, Masiung has been reported as saying, the management will no longer do any maintenance work for the flats. However, residents claim maintenance work has ceased for about 16 years now, though LPPB still collects monthly rental fees. – The Vibes, January 29, 2022
