PETALING JAYA: A PKR vice-president has urged authorities to immediately stop the eviction of farmers on government land.
Tanjong Malim MP Chang Lih Kang said there were many cases of forced eviction of farmers, with the main reasons being the land was given to developer companies for housing projects or large-scale plantations.
He said such incidents continued despite farmers having spent years applying to state governments for the land.
In a statement, Chang said instructions should be given to halt the eviction of farmers on government land or government agency land, or land leased to private companies.
He said the government did not need to formulate new policies to help the agricultural sector, and only needed to correct the land allocation model to ensure priority was given to farmers who grew crops.
He was referring to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s announcement on Tuesday that state governments had agreed to allocate more land for agriculture to strengthen the nation’s food security.
“The government should also ensure that state government land leases are given to small farmers and not large plantation companies,” Chang said.
He said Malaysia currently has 8 million hectares of agricultural land. However, about 6 million hectares are used for palm oil plantations.
“If this problem is not addressed properly, the issue of food security will not be resolved any time soon.
“If the government refuses to stop the forced evictions and correct the land allocation model, the prime minister’s announcement is merely a hypocritical political statement.” - FMT
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