ACID TEST FOR JOHOR SULTAN – WILL HE DEMAND PAYMENT OR REFUSE TO RETURN PULAU KUKUP IF STATE GOVT MOVES TO RE-ACQUIRE LAND SO IT BE RE-GAZETTED AS A NATIONAL PARK: IF HE DOES, HEADS MUST ROLL – STARTING WITH MB OSMAN SAPIAN

PETALING JAYA: Pulau Kukup cannot be re-gazetted by the Johor state government as a national park, as long as it remains as sultanate land.

The only way to return its status as a national park is for the Johor government to acquire the ownership of the land again.

Lawyers for Liberty advisor N. Surendran said that while the Johor government’s intention to re-gazette Pulau Kukup was noble indeed, the law does not allow for this.

“It has been confirmed that the Johor state government has decided to re-gazette Pulau Kukup as a national park under the National Parks (Johor) Corporation Enactment 1989. It was further confirmed that the Johor government will also gazette Pulau Kukup as land held under the Sultanate Lands Enactment 1934,” said Surendran in a press statement on Thursday (Dec 13).

He added that the decision to re-gazette Pulau Kukup as a national park in response to widespread public concern was timely and appropriate.

Surendran explained that Pulau Kukup cannot be gazetted as a national park because the Johor government had decided that it should be held as sultanate land under the 1934 Enactment, which states in Section 2(1) that land held as sultanate land is “not as part of the property of the State”.

“The only way to overcome this obstacle to re-gazette Pulau Kukup as a national park is for the Johor state government to acquire ownership of the land again,” said Surendran.

Pulau Kukup is located off the coast of Pontian in south Johor, and been a national park since 1997.

However, a gazette dated Oct 25, which went viral, stated that state authorities would remove the area’s status as a national park under Subsection 3(3) of the National Park Environment Enactment (Johor) 1989.

After mounting concerns, Tunku Mahkota Johor Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim on Wednesday (Dec 5) announced that Pulau Kukup would become Sultanate land after the Johor state government had de-gazetted as a national park.

The Johor Crown Prince also said that Pulau Kukup would remain a national park in practical terms, even though it was now sultanate land.

THE STAR