Penang DCM offers to solve Gatco crisis

He has been trying to help settlers get their land since the early 1980s.

JEMPOL: A decades-old land dispute in Negeri Sembilan has taken a new twist with Penang Deputy Chief Minister ll P Ramasamy offering his help in resolving it.

Ramasamy said yesterday he would represent the disgruntled settlers of Kampung Serampang Indah, Jempol, in negotiations with Thamarai Holdings, the other party in the dispute.

He made the pledge after a meeting with the settlers, who are often referred to as “Gatco settlers”. Gatco was the company that held the lease on the agricultural land when the settlers purchased it more than 35 years ago.

Yesterday’s meeting discussed the violence that occurred last Thursday when settlers tried to prevent workers from cutting down their rubber trees. They alleged they were attacked by a large number of youths armed with rattan canes and that a woman was injured.

Ramasamy hit out at the police for not taking action against the attackers.

“The police did not arrest the gangsters, but detained a few settlers,” he said. “Are they abetting the gangsters?”

Ramasamy has been trying to help the settlers since the early 1980s, when he was associated with an NGO called Insan.

“Sometime in 1982 or 1983, when I was still working as lecturer in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, the Gatco settlers approached me for some help,” he told FMT.

“It’s been 20 years now. The times have changed and so has the character of the problem.

“The first thing I’ll do tomorrow when I return to Penang is to arrange a meeting with the boss of Thamarai Holdings. I will negotiate with him to find a proper solution to end this dispute that has been dragging on for too long.”

The settlers’ problem started in 1977, when 400 of them paid deposits for the purchase of agricultural land from Gatco.

However, Gatco became bankrupt in 1983 and the land was put up for auction in 2004. The settlers paid RM320,000 in earnest deposit to auctioneer Singam and Young Associates.

Subsequently, however, Singam and Young sold off the land to Thamarai Holdings for RM16 million.

Senawang state assemblyman P Gunasekaran, who was at yesterday’s meeting, referred to Menteri Besar Mohamad Hasan’s promise last July that the Gatco settlers would each receive four acres of land.

“But until today, the offer has not been backed by any document,” he added.

Port Dickson state assemblyman M Ravi also criticised Mohamad, saying he was merely using the issue for political gain.

“Where is there such a thing as free land?” he said. “This is not his father’s land. This is the settler’s land. They each bought eight acres for RM7, 600 in 1977.

“And where are the so-called Indian champions, Rajagopalu and Mogan?” T Rajagopalu is the Negeri Sembilan MIC chief and VS Mogan is a state executive councilor.