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| Map shows the current location of the shelter (yellow strip along the river), and the forest reserve that he wants (to the right). |
Pak Mie says (paraphrase): "The local council wants to evict me soon. I am pinning all my hopes on the Sultan (current Agong). That piece of forest reserve land down the road would be the ideal location to move to. It is 36 acres. There will be plenty of land for the shelter and the excess space will be enough of a buffer from the closest neighbour. My only hope now is for the Sultan to grant it to me.
I don’t want to ask for it from the government because if the government changes, the next ruling party might want to take it back. So the best option is to ask for it from the Sultan, because when the Sultan gives it, it is permanent. He offered me a piece of land in Baling but I didn’t want it because I don’t want to drive 2 hours each way to rescue animals. I only want to rescue the animals in Alor Setar. That forest reserve down the road would be perfect."
Pak Mie repeated this story to the hundreds of people who visited his shelter, so you can just grab anyone and ask them to confirm what he said.
On February 13, 2013, a posh car pulled up and two expensively-dressed people - a man and a woman covered in bling - purportedly from Yayasan Sultanah Bahiyah, came out and announced that the Agong's grandson would be arriving shortly. Later, a big car pulled up with a driver, bodyguard and the Agong’s grandson, Tengku Idris Iskandar. Pak Mie moaned and groaned about being kicked out and said that the best solution would be for him to get the piece of forest reserve land down the road, and asked Tengku Idris to convey to his grandfather his hope that the Agong would give that piece of land to him. He said that if the land was given to him by the government, if the government changed (ruled by a different party, this was before the elections), the new ruling government would take it back, so he wants the King to give it to him, cos whatever the King gives would be permanent. Sounds like a load of bull. But anyhoo, Tengku nodded. I don’t know what transpired after that.
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| Tengku Idris in the white shirt. His bodyguard and driver on the left. |
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Dear Pak Mie,
Cikgu Lelabah said in a comment to me (paraphrase), “Because of what you did, now even the Yayasan has cut off contact with Pak Mie.”
[Update: Here are Cikgu Lelabah’s exact words.]
I’m sure you would be very angry at me if I caused you to lose the prospect of receiving free of charge, the 36-acre piece of land that you had been coveting for so long.
I needed to find out if this was true, so today I paid a visit to the Yayasan Sultanah Bahiyah. [Sultanah Bahiyah is the Agong’s deceased first wife. The foundation is now run by their daughter.]
I spoke to the General Manager of the foundation, Pn. Misbah. They said that they have heard of you and that you had gone there a couple of times, but they do not have any interest in your cause. They are an NGO that supports humans only, not animals. Their focus is on women and children. They give aid in the form of sewing machines or baking equipment for poor women or single mothers, and free tuition classes for orphans, suchlike. They NEVER give out cash to anyone. They said that they never called you back because your cause is completely irrelevant to what they do - they don’t support animals, and they don’t intend to start anytime soon either because they can’t even give enough support to human beings as it is. Besides, they NEVER give cash, so they can’t give you what you want. Also, they are a charity and have nothing to do with managing the sultan’s property (land). They are not the holders of the sultan’s purse-strings. They do not even have anything to do with the sultan! This charity belongs to his daughter. They said that the correct department to speak to regarding anything to do with the Sultan is the Pejabat Sultan at Wisma Darulaman.
So I went to the Pejabat Sultan. The person in charge is Pn. Tam (Pn. Ooi Guat Tam). I spoke to an officer there (Pn. Raahimah). She checked with everyone in the department and no-one has heard of you, received any application from you, rejected any application from you, or made an offer of any land in Baling to you. She said that the land you want (in Alor Setar) does not belong to the Sultan and thus is not his to give. It is a forest reserve, which means that it belongs to the government, and that you should apply not to the Pejabat Sultan nor the Pejabat Tanah, but to the Pejabat Hutan. Since it is a forest reserve, the same rules apply for all reserve land (whether it is a river reserve, railway reserve or forest reserve) - you are not allowed to occupy the land, build anything on the land, and for forest reserves, not allowed to cut down even one tree on the land. Also, she said that if the sultan offered you A, you do not tell him that you don’t want A but you want B. “You do not say NO to the King!!!” She was quite appalled by your belligerence!
The sultan has no time to deal with such matters as he is now the Agong and has his hands full with bigger problems like Sabah. (He is in charge of the military.) In his absence, four other people are ruling Kedah in his place - the Tuanku Bendahara, Tuanku Temenggong, Tuanku Laksamana and Tuanku Puteri. These are the people through whom your application must pass, and none of them has received any application from you, awarded any land to you or even heard of you. If you asked through the sultan’s grandson, Tengku Idris Iskandar, he is not the proper channel and certainly had not put in any application on your behalf. Everybody must follow the palace protocol for the application to move up the chain of command - no exceptions - because each person in the chain has their own duties to carry out in checking out your claim and you yourself. Even if you bypassed all of them and whispered in the Agong’s ear, your application would still be passed down to the bottom to be processed from there.
Datuk Syed Unan is the topmost person in charge of all the Sultan’s state affairs in Kedah and he has never heard of you. Since the Sultan has now gone off to be Agong, there is another team managing his federal affairs in KL. Datuk Elmi is the person in charge in KL, and he has never heard of you either.
The office said that you should produce the offer letter of the land in Baling with the official palace letterhead, special stationery (that you can’t buy in shops) and signature so that she can see who made the offer to you, and with whom you should deal. The King has four signatures for different matters, so don’t even think about forging it. Without the offer letter, IT IS AN OFFENCE to use the sultan’s name or attach his name to any charity project without his knowledge or permission.
It is also an offence to collect donations from the public without permission from the police, in the form of a stamp on your application written on your NGO’s official letterhead. But of course, you don’t even have an NGO because you refused to register it as one! Needless to say, individuals are not allowed to solicit donations. NGOs are allowed because they have to make their accounts public, which is exactly what you are trying to avoid by channelling all donations into your own private bank account. You have already committed two offences right there. All applicants for the sultan’s property would be investigated thoroughly sampai ke lubang cacing and you would have to present all your past accounts for evaluation - of which you have none, by design. So it’s preposterous for you to claim that with so many offences and holes in your story, that the Sultan could even *think* about giving you a piece of his land.
So, to sum it up, the Yayasan ignoring your request had absolutely nothing to do with me. The Sultan NEVER offered you any land in Baling, and you were NEVER rejected for the land in Alor Setar - you never even put in an application! Even if you did, the govt would NEVER give or sell a forest reserve to anyone, King or peasant, for any reason (that’s why it’s called a reserve - it doesn’t mean it was reserved for you!), and I have absolutely nothing to do with that either.
So I really have to thank you, Pak Mie. Because if you hadn’t made that false accusation against me, I would never have gone to dig up the truth.
Anyone who still calls me a liar is welcome to verify the truth for yourself. Let the King’s people tell you who is the liar here.
Yayasan Sultanah Bahiyah: 04-730-4112 (Pn. Misbah)
Pejabat Sultan: 04-774-4059 (Pn. Tam)
