Kampung Siam residents in a state of limbo

GEORGE TOWN: Residents of Kampung Siam in Pulau Tikus here are living in a state of limbo.
The Siamese village has been earmarked for a hotel development but the landowner is still engaged in a court case over the matter.
Pulau Tikus assemblyman Yap Soo Huey said some sections of the Burmese community are claiming for their rights to the land too.
She said everything now was on hold pending the disposal of the case which began sometime last year.
"We have to wait and see how things go, it is status quo now," she told theSun when contacted.
Villagers there were given eviction notices in April 2014 and the matter was taken to the Sessions Court when the landowner made the application to get them to move.
The court ruled in favour of the landowner but the villagers appealed to the High Court. However, the appeal was thrown out on Feb 24, 2016.
It was reported that a five-storey budget hotel with 97 rooms and three shop units was proposed to be built on the land.
Yap said she will still attempt negotiations to ensure that the presence of the Siamese community was always recognised whatever the outcome of the latest case.
"It is a bit hard to negotiate at this point in time though because the outcome is not clear yet," she said, however.
When contacted, village spokesman Boonleua Aroonratana said the Siamese community in Penang wanted their history and heritage to be recognised like the Portuguese community in Malacca.
He said the Siamese had settled in what is now Pulau Tikus even before the arrival of Captain Francis Light who opened Penang as a British trading post.
He said this meant the village was more than 200-years-old and urged their presence and their heritage to preserved.
He said the Siamese community there hoped the landowner could set aside a plot of land on the present site for them to continue with their way of life.
"If we move and stay in another place then our heritage is gone, we are just asking for a small piece of land where we can maintain our way of life, history, and heritage," he told theSun.
Boonleua said the village was established after Siamese from South Thailand moved to Alor Star, Kedah, before moving here.
He said those who relocated from Kedah to here were engaged in the spice trade or were shamans.