"We only get its shadow," quips a cartoon by local cartoonist Rossem
This scenario is likely if a group of activists and NGOs opposed to the construction of the tower make good their promise to mobilise public support in their campaign to stop the mega-project.
"This is a warning to the mayor. If you refuse to listen to the people, we will have a big rally like Bersih and all Malaysians will come in support,” Thasleem Mohd Ibrahim, who heads the Pertahankan Taman Merdeka Negara launched early this year, was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini, during a joint press conference today with Batu member of parliament Tian Chua and other activists.
The so-called 'Warisan Merdeka' tower project - 118-storey high - was first announced by prime minister Najib Razak in his Budget 2011 in October 2010, sparking a public outcry and intense debate in the cyberworld about the wisdom of spending huge amount of money on another mega-structure in the capital.
Activists have decried that Kuala Lumpur mayor Ahmad Phesal Talib had stealthily gone ahead with the project, after City Hall put up a notice last week near the historic Stadium Merdeka. They also maintained that the project would involve the change of land status from open space and institution to commercial use.
The project, costing RM5 billion when first announced, will be carried out by Permodalan Nasional Berhad, a government arm set up under the Bumiputra Investment Foundation chaired by Najib.
The notice by City Hall states that any objection to the project should be submitted by July 2. It also informs that the project would comprise of luxury apartments, hotel, shopping mall and office space.
Meanwhile, a Facebook page set up in the wake of the project's announcement in 2010, called on Malaysians to register their protest.
A posting on the latest notice by City Hall questions why it has not mentioned the applicant's name, and asks if the government has sold the land to PNB.
"The Government cannot legally sell it because the land legally belongs to Rakyat nor they have the right to do anything with the land other than the purpose it was reserved for," it says.
"Rakyat Malaysia, would you allow such destroyance of our Merdeka heritage and let our people's land funneled into pockets of cronies capitalists?" adds the page, which has attracted some 311,000 fans.
When completed, Warisan Merdeka will be the third tallest structure in the world, losing only to Dubai's Burj Khalifa and a metre shorter than the clock tower overlooking the Grand Mosque in Makkah. HD
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