Forest land taken by MCA man?

PKR's Rafizi Ramli reveals documents allegedly showing that 1,014 hectares of land is controlled by Negeri Sembilan MCA chairman Yeow Chai Thiam.

PETALING JAYA: More than a thousand hectares of Negeri Sembilan jungle is, according to PKR, in the hands of a private company and the land is said to be worth just RM10.

PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli showed a March 4, 2004 letter where the 1,104 hectares at Serting Ulu, Jempol, was to be allocated to Asli-YNS Sdn Bhd for growing rubber.

The letter appeared to be issued by the Negeri Sembilan State Secretariat to the state’s Land and Mines Director and the Jempol District Land Administrator.

Parts of the letter were blackened out.

“Even though the name of this company gives the impression that it is a joint-venture with the state, a search at the Companies Commission of Malaysia, revealed that it is owned and controlled by state MCA chairman, Senator Dr Yeow Chai Thiam,” Rafizi told reporters.

He was referring to the Jeram Padang Selatan Forest Reserve, near Bahau in Jempol. Previously, FMT reported that the area had been classified as a Permanent Forest Reserve since Aug 30, 1918.

Documents provided by PKR showed that Asli-YNS Sdn Bhd appeared to have an issued shared capital of RM10. It had two directors: Yeow and a Yan Sien Wee.

Only half the story

Yeow, it appeared seemed to own half of the company’s shares, or RM5. The CCM documents showed that the company was registered in Feb 20, 2004.

To this, Rafizi said: “I would love to be that someone who could, with RM5, get 1,104 hectares of forest land.”

He added that this appeared to contradict Menteri Besar Mohamad Hassan’s statement that the Jeram Padang Selatan Forest Reserve still belonged to the state government, through Yayasan Negeri Sembilan (YNS).

“Mohammad only presented half of the story. He said by the state policy that any degazetted reserve would be given to YNS…he didn’t say what happened from YNS onwards,” Rafizi said.

On parts of the letter that was blackened out, the PKR leader said that Asli-YNS was only the first of four companies involved in the matter.

“I hope the other three companies will panic a little. One by one, you can trace them back to the leadership of Umno-Barisan Nasional,” he said.