About 200 unlicensed durian farmers in Raub, Pahang, whose land has been taken over, gathered in front of Pasar Sungai Klau today.
Holding photos of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah and chanting "save the durian farms", the farmers urged the king, who is also the sultan of Pahang, to intervene in the land dispute.
They made the call at a large-scale press conference held by DAP's Tras assemblyperson Chow Yu Hui and the "Save Musang King Alliance" (Samka).
Speaking to the media, Chow urged the Royal Pahang Durian Group (RPD) and the Pahang government to stop ignoring the historic fact that the so-called "illegal farmers" were actually encouraged into farming by the government.
He told the media that hundreds of farmers were encouraged to reclaim and cultivate empty land there in the 1970s, under the Green Book Programme (Rancangan Buku Hijau), and it was baseless to accuse them of having occupied the land illegally.
"During the time of (second prime minister) Tun Razak (Hussein), he launched the Green Book Programme and continuously encouraged people to cultivate the wastelands to ensure their self-sufficiency. There were also some plans to encourage the youth into farming.
"This is history. Royal Pahang Durian completely ignored this part of history and the state government also chose to forget this. In fact, many farmers started farming here (under the government's policy).
"In order to harvest the crops (in the land without plot permits), they even had paid land-use tax to the Land Office before," he added.
Chow also pointed out that RPD should withdraw their "false accusations" and apologise if the company sincerely sought to cooperate with the local farmers.
Meanwhile, Samka president Wilson Chang told the press that an open letter to be sent to the Agong has been endorsed by about 1,000 local farmers, including both legal and illegal farmers.
He estimated that around 70 percent of the durian farms in Raub are without land title certificates (land grants).
Although the durian farmers do not have any land title certificates to prove the ownership of their farms, they had been applying for their legal land certificates for decades, he claimed.
The government actually acknowledged their existence for a long time but refuses to grant legal documents to them, he said.
The Pahang state government had previously announced that the land the farmers were illegally occupying would be leased to the Royal Pahang Durian Produce-PKPP Sdn Bhd (RPDP-PKPP) in order to “legalise” the land.
RPDP-PKPP is reportedly a joint venture between the Pahang royalty-linked Royal Pahang Durian Group and Perbadanan Kemajuan Pertanian Negeri Pahang (PKPP).
According to the RPD website, the president of the company is the daughter of the Agong, Tengku Puteri Iman Afzan Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.
Previously, the Pahang government stated that the government will take over all illegal plantations at Kampung Sungai Ruan and Kampung Chalit, Raub from today (August 24).
Meanwhile, Bilut assemblyperson Lee Chin Chen revealed in a Facebook post at 11.30am that, according to the Pahang government's reply in the state assembly, the enforcement was postponed.
He still urged the durian farmers to be on alert in case of surprise enforcement. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.