Chartered surveyor Ernest Cheong said this after residents of five villages staged a protest against the proposal to build a Chinese cemetery at the centre of their villages.
Citing Article 13 of the Federal Constitution, he noted that the authorities must inform residents within the neighbourhood when they want to rezone a plot of land for use as a cemetery. The residents must also be given the chance to object.
“We need to establish whether the land was zoned for a cemetery in compliance with the law and whether due process was observed,” said Cheong. “In this case, it is a legal issue and not a political issue.”
Rezoning a plot of land for cemetery use should comply with provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act as well as the National Land Code.
Failure to apply due process would make the cemetery illegal, enabling surrounding land owners to bring the matter to court, he said.
However, in the event a vacant plot of land was designated as cemetery grounds prior to the development of the surrounding areas, the onus to find out what the vacant lot would be used for will be shifted to the buyers of the neighbouring land.
Aside from being scary looking, Malaysians generally would not want to live near cemeteries due to the many taboos associated to them.
“In western countries like the United States, the cemeteries are maintained like parks and don’t look so scary. So the value and demand for surrounding properties may not be affected, but it’s a different story here,” shared Cheong.
Image sourced from Spidey Buzz
Diane Foo Eu Lynn, Senior Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email diane@propertyguru.com.my
