'It is evil when a law is crafted to take away land from the poor without their consent, fair compensation or share in its benefits so that a few might make it to Forbes’ list of billionaires. We should all be foaming at our mouth with anger at this injustice but instead we just thank God daily that it is not our land they have come to take, at least not yet.' - Thomas Fann
21 years ago, YB Lim Kit Siang could foresee the ulterior motive, but like many Bills bulldozed through Parliament because of BN's two-third majority, his views were dismissed as over-reactions and did not get due publicity in the BN-controlled mainstream media, not that it would make any difference then.
Excerpt from Thomas Fann's article:
The leader of the opposition then, YB Lim Kit Siang in opposing Act A804 (1991 Land Acquisition Amendment Bill), gave this dire warning – “When it becomes law, it will destroy the constitutional right to property enjoyed by Malaysians for 34 years since Merdeka, and become the mother of all corruption, abuses of power, conflicts-of-interest and unethical malpractices in Malaysia…”
Was Kit Siang just over-reacting or scare-mongering when he said that or is it a prophecy that was and is being fulfilled till today?
The impetus for the passing of Act A804 was for the acquisition of 33,000 acres of land in the Gelang Patah area for the construction of the second link with Singapore and the construction of a new township by UEM, wiping out 19 villages and displacing 10,000 people.
The Johor State Government offered the affected small-holders compensation averaging RM26,000 per acre or 64 sen per square foot, far below the then market value of RM100,000 per acre for agricultural land. In a subsequent civil suit by one of the affected land owners against the Government of Johor in 1995, it was revealed that a subsidiary of Renong was offering the intended development for sale at RM17 per square foot, a whopping 28 times more than what the original land owners got!
...
For the Second Link and the highway that linked it to the North-South Highway to be built, the Land Acquisition Act was necessary. Compensation to be fair had to not only take into account the then prevailing market value but also the loss of livelihood for the people who used to live off the land.
With Act A804, the government seized a lot more land than was required for the custom and immigration complex and the highway. We can safely say it seized almost 24,000 acres more for a private corporation, UEM, albeit it is a GLC (government-linked corporation).
...
Of course not all compulsory acquisitions are unjust or not justifiable; but there should be a fair and unskewed avenue for aggrieved land owners through the justice system to question certain acquisitions. The courts now are somewhat constrained by Act A804, and in almost all cases such acquisitions are not reversed.
Twenty years on, the same script is being acted out in Johor again (a BN stronghold), this time to the east in Pengerang. A total of 22,500 acres of land are being acquired for the development of the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC). The anchor project in this proposal is Petronas’ RAPID project which requires a sizable 6,424 acres.
Smallholders and plantations are being offered between RM1.80 psf and RM8 psf for their land. Can Pengerang be called Gelang Patah 2.0 where again on the pretext of development, a huge tract of land is being taken from their original land owners and placed in the hands of one or a few wealthy individuals and corporations? Is the PIPC the main play or is property speculation the main play? Would the same PM who mooted the Third Link to Singapore in 2009 make the announcement again after all the land has been acquired? Who are the direct beneficiaries of such development?
All these are so “legal” that one government official after another is spewing out that it is done properly under the terms of the Land Acquisition Act 1960. It may be legal, but is it moral?
http://thomasfann.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/land-grab-malaysian-style/
Link
21 years ago, YB Lim Kit Siang could foresee the ulterior motive, but like many Bills bulldozed through Parliament because of BN's two-third majority, his views were dismissed as over-reactions and did not get due publicity in the BN-controlled mainstream media, not that it would make any difference then.
Excerpt from Thomas Fann's article:
The leader of the opposition then, YB Lim Kit Siang in opposing Act A804 (1991 Land Acquisition Amendment Bill), gave this dire warning – “When it becomes law, it will destroy the constitutional right to property enjoyed by Malaysians for 34 years since Merdeka, and become the mother of all corruption, abuses of power, conflicts-of-interest and unethical malpractices in Malaysia…”
Was Kit Siang just over-reacting or scare-mongering when he said that or is it a prophecy that was and is being fulfilled till today?
The impetus for the passing of Act A804 was for the acquisition of 33,000 acres of land in the Gelang Patah area for the construction of the second link with Singapore and the construction of a new township by UEM, wiping out 19 villages and displacing 10,000 people.
The Johor State Government offered the affected small-holders compensation averaging RM26,000 per acre or 64 sen per square foot, far below the then market value of RM100,000 per acre for agricultural land. In a subsequent civil suit by one of the affected land owners against the Government of Johor in 1995, it was revealed that a subsidiary of Renong was offering the intended development for sale at RM17 per square foot, a whopping 28 times more than what the original land owners got!
...
For the Second Link and the highway that linked it to the North-South Highway to be built, the Land Acquisition Act was necessary. Compensation to be fair had to not only take into account the then prevailing market value but also the loss of livelihood for the people who used to live off the land.
With Act A804, the government seized a lot more land than was required for the custom and immigration complex and the highway. We can safely say it seized almost 24,000 acres more for a private corporation, UEM, albeit it is a GLC (government-linked corporation).
...
Of course not all compulsory acquisitions are unjust or not justifiable; but there should be a fair and unskewed avenue for aggrieved land owners through the justice system to question certain acquisitions. The courts now are somewhat constrained by Act A804, and in almost all cases such acquisitions are not reversed.
Twenty years on, the same script is being acted out in Johor again (a BN stronghold), this time to the east in Pengerang. A total of 22,500 acres of land are being acquired for the development of the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC). The anchor project in this proposal is Petronas’ RAPID project which requires a sizable 6,424 acres.
Smallholders and plantations are being offered between RM1.80 psf and RM8 psf for their land. Can Pengerang be called Gelang Patah 2.0 where again on the pretext of development, a huge tract of land is being taken from their original land owners and placed in the hands of one or a few wealthy individuals and corporations? Is the PIPC the main play or is property speculation the main play? Would the same PM who mooted the Third Link to Singapore in 2009 make the announcement again after all the land has been acquired? Who are the direct beneficiaries of such development?
All these are so “legal” that one government official after another is spewing out that it is done properly under the terms of the Land Acquisition Act 1960. It may be legal, but is it moral?
Source:
http://thomasfann.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/land-grab-malaysian-style/
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