‘Brits cared more for poor Malays than Umno’

Rembau MP Khairy is urged to be responsible and attend personally to the need of an 80-year-old resident.

REMBAU: The British colonial government was more concerned about the plight of poor Malays compared to Umno, said an opposition leader.

Rembau PKR chief Badrul Hisham Shaharin made the accusation after coming to learn about the plight of an 80-year-old resident in Kampung Halt Chembong here.

The resident, Hasnah Latif is upset with the amount of compensation she has received from the government, claiming that it is well below market value.

Hasnah’s land and house is among the 40 houses in the village which have to make way for the double railway track project from Seremban to Gemas which passes through the district of Rembau and Tampin.

Hasnah claimed that the RM98,000 compensation is not sufficient for her to buy a plot of land and build another new house.

“From day one, I insisted that I don’t want money and I told the staff at the Rembau parliament service centre to please replace my land and house, but this did not happen,” she said.

Malay reserve land

Meanwhile, Badrul said the affected land is called “Tanah Adat” in Negeri Sembilan which is equivalent to the Malay reserve land.

“According to the Tanah Melayu Constitution that was drafted by the British, it’s clearly written that any Malay reserve land that is developed must be replaced with the same amount of land.

“This means that if you take one acre, you must replace with one acre. This rule was enforced by the British to safeguard the rights of poor Malays who lived in kampongs at that point of time.

“In this context, I think the British were more concerned about the rights of poor Malays than Umno which claims to champion the race,” he added.

Badrul also lambasted Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin’s personal assistant, who purportedly told Hasnah to ask the PKR leader for compensation.

“She informed me that the PA told her that if she is not happy with the compensation, ‘ask Badrul for a few hundred thousand ringgit’,” he said.

“What kind of mentality does this man have mocking the old lady with such words. I urge Khairy as the Rembau MP to be responsible and attend personally to this problem,” he added.

Badrul said he was told by the residents of the kampung that three different private real estate valuation companies gave a quotation of RM248, 000 for the land and the house.

“But the valuation by the parties developing the kampung land for the double railway track is just RM121, 000 in total,” he added.

Meanwhile, Rembau PAS chief Mohd Taufek Abdul Ghani, who also visited Hasnah promised to raise matter during the state assembly sitting in April.

“This clearly shows that Umno-Barisan Nasional is not really concerned about the people,” said the Paroi assemblyman. - FMT