Land squeeze is non-discriminatory; Malaysians from all racial, eremite as well as amicable strata have been affected.
COMMENT
By Thomas Fann This is not the brand brand brand new issue, in fact it is twenty-one years old.
It all began when the Barisan Nasional government, with the overwhelming majority in Parliament, passed by 99 to twenty-five votes the 1991 Land Acquisition Amendment Bill, or Act A804. The rephrasing of sections of the Land Acquisition Act 1960 essentially gave incontestable energy to state governments to seize in isolation land for growth by in isolation companies as well as individuals. Lands creatively acquired for open purposes can additionally be used for in isolation development.
Before Act A804, land could usually be acquired for open purposes or for open utilities similar to building of roads, schools, hospitals, pipelines, water or energy plants, etc. With the addition of "for any role which in the opinion of the State Authority is beneficial to the mercantile growth of Malaysia", no land is safe.
The term "beneficial to the mercantile growth of Malaysia" is as subjective as we can get. A square of land can be acquired to build the posh five-star hotel, an amusement park or the golf resort given in the opinion of the supervision it would move in the tourist dollar as well as emanate jobs for locals, not to mention enriching the in isolation companies which would, of course, be paying taxes.
To unequivocally have the Land Acquisition Act water-tight for the acquirer, Section 68A says which acquisitions cannot be invalidated by reason of any kind of ! successi ve disposal or have use of (etc) of the acquired land.
This brand brand brand new provision aims during preventing the acquirer or the supposed role from being challenged in court. You can usually challenge the quantum of the remuneration offered, the measurement of the land area, the chairman whom remuneration is upon credit to, as well as the dividend of the compensation.
The leader of the antithesis then, Lim Kit Siang, in opposing Act A804, gave this dire warning: "When it becomes law, it will destroy the constitutional right to skill enjoyed by Malaysians for 34 years given Merdeka, as well as turn the mother of all corruption, abuses of power, conflicts-of-interest as well as reprobate malpractices in Malaysia"
Was Kit Siang just over-reacting or scare-mongering when he pronounced which or is it the prophecy which was as well as is being over compartment today?
A brand brand brand new ball game
The procedure for the passing of Act A804 was for the merger of 33,000 acres of land in the Gelang Patah area for the building the whole of the second couple with Singapore as well as the building the whole of the brand brand brand new municipality by UEM, wiping out nineteen villages as well as displacing 10,000 people.
The Johor state supervision charity the influenced smallholders remuneration averaging RM26,000 per acre or 64 sen per sqe ft, far next the afterwards market worth of RM100,000 per acre for rural land.
In the successive civil suit by the single of the influenced landowners opposite the supervision of Johor in 1995, it was suggested which the auxiliary of Renong was charity the dictated growth for sale during RM17 per sq ft, the whopping 28 times some-more than what the original landowners got!
For the glance in to the little of the backroom wheeling as well as traffic which went upon with these deals, the single should read the justice papers of cases simi! lar to " Honan Plantations vs Govt of Johor'; as well as "Stamford Holdings vs Govt of Johor". Names of important personalities similar to Muhyiddin Yassin, Syed Mokhtar Albukhary as well as Yahya Talib in tip meetings were mentioned.
For the Second Link as well as the categorical road which linked it to the North-South Expressway to be built, the Land Acquisition Act was necessary. To be fair, remuneration had to not usually take in to comment the afterwards prevailing market worth though additionally the detriment of provision for the people who used to live off the land.
With Act A804, the supervision seized the lot some-more land than was mandatory for the law as well as immigration complex as well as the highway. We can safely contend it seized almost 24,000 acres some-more for the in isolation corporation, UEM, albeit it is the GLC (government-linked corporation).
Today, UEM Land, as the master developer of the 23,875-acre Nusajaya (as the acquired land is right divided called) boasts of the huge landbank as well as potential billions in profit from the development. We wish to ask this simple touching question: whose lands were these originally, as well as what about the 10,000 over influenced villagers? Shouldn't these people be beneficiaries of growth as well as not the victims? Perhaps the little of the villagers have been right divided working in Legoland, who knows?
While the little of the people behind the scenes went upon to grasp high bureau as well as the little done it to the top 10 billionaires list, thousands of alternative indistinguishable Malaysians have been without land as well as opportunities.
Land squeeze is non-discriminatory: Malaysians from all racial, eremite as well as amicable strata have been affected.
Gelang Patah was just the predecessor to the brand brand brand new ball game called Land Grab as well as the same modus operandi was used for Seremban 2, Bandar Aman Jaya in Sungai Petani, Pantai Kun! dor/Pant ai Tanah Merah as well as Paya Mengkuang in Melaka, Kerpan in Kedah, Sepang in Selangor, lands acquired for the MRT project, Jalan Sultan, local prevalent lands in the Peninsula, Sabah as well as Sarawak, as well as many, most more.
Of course, not all mandatory acquisitions have been unfair or not justifiable; though there should be the satisfactory as well as unskewed entrance for aggrieved landowners by the justice complement to question certain acquisitions.
The courts right divided have been somewhat constrained by Act A804, as well as in almost all cases such acquisitions have been not reversed.
The Pengerang grab
Twenty years on, the same script is being acted out in Johor again (a BN stronghold), this time to the east in Pengerang.
A sum of 22,500 acres of land have been being acquired for the growth of the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC). The anchor plan in this proposal is Petronas' RAPID plan which requires the sizeable 6,424 acres.
Smallholders as well as plantations have been being charity between RM1.80 psf as well as RM8 psf for their land.
Can Pengerang be called Gelang Patah 2.0 where again, upon the pretext of development, the huge tract of land is being taken from their original landowners as well as placed in the hands of the single or the few rich individuals as well as corporations? Is the PIPC the categorical play or is skill speculation the categorical play?
Would the same budding minister who mooted the Third Link to Singapore in 2009 have the proclamation again after all the land has been acquired? Who have been the approach beneficiaries of such development?
All these have been so "legal" which the single supervision official after another is spewing out which it is done scrupulously under the terms of the Land Acquisition Act 1960. It competence be legal, though is it moral?
Prime Minister Najib T! un Razak done the statement during the launch of the sixth International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities Conference in Kuala Lumpur upon the Oct 4, 2012: "Is the unbridled as well as cruel pursuit of extraordinary profits the form of corruption? we hold which if we see crime as essentially the moral problem, therefore anything which promotes selfish interest during the expense of the contentment of others is implicitly wrong. It was empty [tasteless] self-interest as well as fervour which was indeed during the heart of corruption. "
Mr Prime Minister, we could not determine with we more.
How much is enough for the greedy? How most some-more poor as well as without protection villagers contingency be forcibly replaced as well as attacked of the fruits of growth to prove the insatiable appetites of the miserly who uses the Land Acquisition Act to enrich themselves? Who will verbalise up for the thousands who will be landless as well as most without the means of livelihood?
It is immorality when the law is crafted to take divided land from the poor without their consent, satisfactory remuneration or share in the benefits so which the few competence have it to Forbes' list of billionaires. We should all be foaming during the mouth with anger during this injustice though instead we just appreciate God daily which it is not the land they have come to take, during least not yet.
Thomas Fann blogs atwww.newmalaysia.org
Read More @ Source More Barisan Nasional (BN) | Pakatan Rakyat (PR) | Sociopolitics Plus |
Courtesy of Bonology.com Politically Incorrect Buzz & Buzz
No comments:
Post a Comment