Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng has reacted furiously over the Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) modification of public benches to include bench dividers as a means to prevent the homeless from utilizing it as rest beds. Lim had lambasted the DBKL, asking them not to be “cruel” in its attempt to clear the KL streets of homeless people which federal government authorities label as a “blemish” to the city’s image.

“Remove the dividers on benches on Kuala Lumpur walkways immediately,” he said, following images circulated showing the poor forcing themselves to fit through the metal dividers to rest on the benches.

Lim expressed shock that the scenario had occurred in Kuala Lumpur that paints the authorities as “heartless” in their marginalization of the less fortunate.

“With a week before Syawal (tenth month of the Islamic lunar calendar), the authorities should instead be providing welfare for the poor in the streets; they who are less fortunate should at least be be given a taste of the celebrations during this holy month,” lamented Lim, calling the authorities “inhumane” for hindering the poor from using the benches as places to rest at night.

“I would have thought that the Prime Minister Najib Razak’s visit  there would have benefited the poor on the streets, but they weren’t even given a cloth to cover themselves”

“The poor, who don’t even have a house to go to, now don’t have a place to sleep,” Lim added.

“Dont be cruel DBKL!”

The actions by the DBKL have been perceived as a follow up to Federal Territory Minister Tengku Adnan Mansor’s move to ban soup kitchens in a 2 kilometre radius area in the city effective after Hari Raya Aidil Fitri next week. -TheRocket