Dream Land (1)

I wasted 2 hours in the Pejabat Tanah Batu Gajah today. The man I was supposed to meet, a 70 year old apom balik seller, didn’t show up. Ryan fell asleep 5 or 6 times on my lap, woke up every time I shifted my standing/sitting position.
My lawyer set up this meeting, and yet her assistant only showed up 45 minutes after I arrived. I was supposed to sign a 14A form in front of a Pegawai there regarding a land I was purchasing from the man I was waiting for, Pak Akub. I couldn’t sign this form in the lawyer’s office because the land is protected under ‘Rizab Melayu’. They want to make sure I am really Melayu before they can approve the transfer, I think.
I put a 10% down payment for this land in April 2007. That’s more than 3 years ago, can you believe it? My husband and I fell in love with this flat land in Kampung Pisang Batu Gajah the first time the land-broker brought us there. There was a small bubbling brook that ran across it – clear and cool water with soft sound. It was serene and beautiful. I could picture my kids cleaning themselves up there after running around in that vast area. It was located near the Lumut-Ipoh express way (still under construction back then). There was a piece of government land that was being reserved as birds’ sanctuary right across the land. In 2008, during the hectic months of the General Election, our UMNO ADUN, Mdm Hamidah Osman, together with the Menteri Alam Sekitar at that time, visited the place and promised to upgrade the facility and promote the area as one of Perak’s tourists’ attraction. The interview was aired in Bulletin Utama TV3. The interview was conducted right there across ‘our land’. How cool was that.
The 10% I gave to the broker never reached Pak Akub’s hand. It served as the commission to the broker. Pak Akub came to our house, confirming his intention to sell the land. That was when we learned that the land was actually split into two titles, and get this, Pak Akub’s name isn’t the only name on the two titles. Pak Akub has 3 other sibblings, one biological mother and one step mother. The mothers were long gone. That meant that the lawyer had to make the necessary search and proceed with the pembicaraan kuasa and the faraid stuff. Let’s face it, how many Malaysian Melayu bother to write a will before they check out from this world? Including my husband, me and the people we know.. may be five. (Then again, may be some people, unlike the two of us, keep their will-writing a secret). The procedure would cost money – the money that Pak Akub didn’t have. And again money came out from our not-so-deep pockets. The siblings were all alive and according to Pak Akub (the eldest), all were in the agreement to sell.
Time passed as the lawyer supposedly did her thing.
After a couple of months I got a call from my lawyer asking me to meet with Khalid, Pak Akub’s youngest sibling. Khalid came down from KL and insisted to meet me. The lawyer gave him my address and we met at my house. He came alone. Khalid told us that he was willing to sell his share if we could triple the price offered by Pak Akub. We agreed. Khalid added that the other siblings were reluctant to sell, but he could now convince them with the new price. Good, we said. That meeting set us back a few hundred ringgit. The money was not part of the land payment, Khalid insisted, instead it was to cover his expenses in getting the other two siblings to come down to the lawyer’s office and proceed with the necessary legal arrangements. Hah.. that was the last time I saw or heard from Khalid.
Things dragged slowly, if it ever moved, in 2009.
Both of us, the lawyer and me got pregnant in 2009. My lawyer, we call her Pn Nor, delivered a baby girl on 31 December 2009, exactly 2 weeks before my Ryan was born. The file sat on her desk while we recuperated from our delivery ordeal. She had it tough. Her amniotic fluid leaked unnoticed for a couple of days, while she was busy working to close deals before the year ended. She delivered her baby on the operating table.
Our babies are 6 months old now. Pn Nor advised me to buy Pak Akub’s portion from one title first. There is still a lot of unfinished business with the rest.
So there I was sitting/ standing restlessly in the cafetaria of the Pejabat Tanah, still no closer to getting my name in the land title. Rizal (Pn Nor’s assistant) suggested that I waited in the air-conditioned room of the Kaunter Pendaftaran while he kept an eye on Pak Akub’s arrival there. Pak Akub didn’t carry a phone – so there was no way to contact him.
On my way to the Kaunter Pendaftaran, I spotted an Auction advertisement on the notice board. A 4,053 square meter lot tepi meant for bangunan was to be auctioned in early September. Price was reserved at RM36k. Hmm.. may be my 2-hour wasn’t wasted after all.
By noon, I couldn’t wait any longer. Rizal was heading out for his lunch break. I reached home at a quarter to one, reheated last night’s leftover, solat zohor, ate lunch, packed some lunch for Sarah and drove to pick Sarah up at school. Sarah ate her meal inside the car (again!) because her mommy had to drive to Taman Pertama in Silibin for an appointment with new clients, a young 20-something couple, who were about to make their first unit trust investment. Arghh.. why can’t I be satisfied with just the workload of a housewife?