Overwhelming response to dialogue on land grievances
Steven ChenPublished: Apr 1, 2012 2:00 PM | Updated: Apr 1, 2012 7:29 PM
Some 90 people attended a dialogue session titled ‘The Johoreans land problem' organised by the Johor People's Complaint Centre, at the Good Hope Hotel, Skudai, yesterday afternoon.
Organised by the Johor People's Complaints Centre, there wasn't enough time to hear all the complainants.
Some 90 people attended a dialogue session titled ‘The Johoreans land problem' organised by the Johor People's Complaints Centre, at the Good Hope Hotel, Skudai, yesterday afternoon.
Its objective was to gather and compile all land related problems in Johor, to summarise the various proposals in resolving the problems, and to form a main committee named ‘Gabungan Selamatkan Tanah Rakyat Johor' (Tanah).
The majority of the participants who attended the dialogue session had land-related grievances with the district and/or state land department stretching from as far back as the 1990s.
They came from from the various districts in Johor such as Tangkak, Senggarang (Batu Pahat), Machap (Kluang) and Mersing.
A 51-year-old smallholder from Macap, Kluang, Mohd Khalil Talkah, told the panellists that he has been paying land assessment tax regularly to the district land office between 1972 to 1990 but later discovered that his land, comprising of six acres, had been given to another party.
Another smallholder, Chan Ah Meng, 48, from Bukit Serampang, Tangkak, told the panellists that he represented 11 other smallholders who have toiled on their land between 15 to 20 years.
"We had applied to the land office for the agricultural land between 1986 to 1996 without success and lately found out that that it had been given to others," Chan claimed.
One participant complained that a lawyer who handled his land sale cheated him. While the land title name had been transferred to the new owner, the land has not been paid for, and he appealed to the panellists for assistance.
Due to the overwhelming response, each participant was given five minutes to voice their grievance. Due to time constraints, 10 were unable to speak, but had their grievances noted.
The panel, headed by Suhaizan Kaiat, included Zulkefli Ahmad, Hassan Karim, Mazlan Aliman, Ustaz Azam Abd Razak and Mohd Faizul Mohd Salleh.
National laureate A Samad Said later joined in the dialogue session at the tail end and declaimed a poem to show his support.
A group of eight from Pengarang made a rousing presentation of their plight through poetry and banners, protesting against the forced acquisition of their land by the state government to develop the controversial RM60 billion Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project (Rapid).
Its objective was to gather and compile all land related problems in Johor, to summarise the various proposals in resolving the problems, and to form a main committee named ‘Gabungan Selamatkan Tanah Rakyat Johor' (Tanah).
The majority of the participants who attended the dialogue session had land-related grievances with the district and/or state land department stretching from as far back as the 1990s.
They came from from the various districts in Johor such as Tangkak, Senggarang (Batu Pahat), Machap (Kluang) and Mersing.A 51-year-old smallholder from Macap, Kluang, Mohd Khalil Talkah, told the panellists that he has been paying land assessment tax regularly to the district land office between 1972 to 1990 but later discovered that his land, comprising of six acres, had been given to another party.
Another smallholder, Chan Ah Meng, 48, from Bukit Serampang, Tangkak, told the panellists that he represented 11 other smallholders who have toiled on their land between 15 to 20 years.
"We had applied to the land office for the agricultural land between 1986 to 1996 without success and lately found out that that it had been given to others," Chan claimed.
One participant complained that a lawyer who handled his land sale cheated him. While the land title name had been transferred to the new owner, the land has not been paid for, and he appealed to the panellists for assistance.
Due to the overwhelming response, each participant was given five minutes to voice their grievance. Due to time constraints, 10 were unable to speak, but had their grievances noted.
The panel, headed by Suhaizan Kaiat, included Zulkefli Ahmad, Hassan Karim, Mazlan Aliman, Ustaz Azam Abd Razak and Mohd Faizul Mohd Salleh.
National laureate A Samad Said later joined in the dialogue session at the tail end and declaimed a poem to show his support.
A group of eight from Pengarang made a rousing presentation of their plight through poetry and banners, protesting against the forced acquisition of their land by the state government to develop the controversial RM60 billion Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project (Rapid).
View Comments0