Memo to Sultans on Malay Reserve Land

Rulers will be asked to follow up on an agreement to reserve 50% of land for Malays.

GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Malays Association (Pemenang) will submit a memorandum to the Malay rulers and the Prime Minister to ask them to follow up on a 1957 agreement to reserve for the Malays 50% of land in all the princely states.

The group’s president, Mohd Yussof Latiff, said the memorandum would emphasise the importance of Malay Reserve Land (MRL) in safeguarding Malay interests and the need to carry out development projects to benefit the community.

Pemenang will meet other Malay organisations, such as Malay Heritage Trust Organisation (Pewaris), this Monday to finalise the memorandum for submission in a fortnight’s time.

Yussof said Pemenang’s appeal would be in accordance with the Federation of Malaya Agreement, which the Malay rulers signed on Aug 5, 1957.

He pointed out that under the seven-point agreement, which came to be known as the Malay Royal Will, half of the land in all princely Malay states in Peninsular Malaysia was to be gazetted as MRL.

The agreement does not cover the former Straits Settlement states of Penang and Malacca.

Yussof cited a recent study by Mohd Hasrol Haffiz Aliasak of UiTM, which revealed that MRL, which amounted to 15.87% in 1921 and 13.35% in 1955, had now diminished to just 12% of land in the Malay states.

Most MRL was acquired by federal and state governments for public development.

But Yussof argued that under the Federal Constitution, the acquired land must be replaced in swap deals.

“However, this has not been done over the years,” he said. “It’s shocking, worrying and disappointing. The agreement was signed to safeguard MRL for the benefit of the Malay community. Under the Royal Malay Will, MRL has to be 50%.”

Yussof disclosed that Pemenang submitted a separate memorandum last month to the the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, asking for the establishment of a federal agency to administer and develop the Muslim Endowment Land (MEL) in Penang.

Currently MEL is under the Penang Islamic Religious Council (Maipp), but Yussof said the council had proven to be inept in executing its task of governing and developing the land bank for the benefit of Muslims in the state.

He said Maipp had even returned 90% of RM100 million given by the federal government in 2008 to develop MEL in Penang because “the council lacked development ideas.”

Yussof said most MEL located in prime areas could be developed with mixed residential and commercial projects to provide housing and boost economic activities for some 10,000 Penang Malays.