A plea for a government with humanity and understanding of the hardship of the people
Yesterday, while on my house-to-house visit in Puchong, 13 m. s., I came across another instance of the cruelty, heartlessness and inhumanity of the Alliance State Government.
At the Puchong 13 m. s., there were about 20 Chinese and Indian families, who face imminent eviction from their land, and demolition of their houses and destruction of their fruit trees by the State Government, because their land had been allocated to Malays.
A visit to these houses will show the poverty, hardship and misery of rural folks in Malaysia, whether Malay, Chinese or Indian.
The over 100 people of these families eke out a subsistence and miserable existence, all struggling to keep their body and soul together from the fruit trees they grow.
Some of the families, particularly the Indian families, have been staying in the area from 10 to 20 years.
In the case of three Chinese families, they had stayed there on T. O. L. leases since 1959.
Like the other Indian families, the three Chinese families have no other means of livelihood, but the fruit trees they grow.
One family had about 60 fruit trees, another over 100 fruit trees, and a third over 200 fruit trees, comprising rambutans, durians, etc.
The majority of these trees were just going to bear fruit, and the families had expected a lightening of their poverty and hardship and repayment of their years of hard toil, sacrifice and sweat, when they reap the harvest of their years of labour on the fruit trees.
But now, they are all heart-broken, and in utter despair, because the world crashed on them when they were told to move out of their land, without any compensation and offer of alternative land.
They are particularly bitter because the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr. Michael Chen, had promised them that they could go on growing fruit trees, as he would help them to get titles for the land.
Now, they are going to lose all their years’ of investment. If they have to move out of their land, they will have no means of livelihood at all, and no means of existence.
I am shocked that the Alliance government and the Alliance Member of Parliament should be so unmindful of the suffering and hardship the Alliance is causing the poor.
In this case, the Alliance government wants to destroy the homes, crops and sole means of livelihood of 100 over people. And yet not regard itself responsible to compensate them for their losses and find alternative land for them.
What government is this? Only an inhuman government will do this!
No government, which has the welfare of the people as the primary concern, will behave like this, particularly when it is the result of direct government action.
A government is paid by the people, to look after the people’s problems. A government is duty and morally bound to see that there is social justice for all classes of people.
In this particular case, social justice demands that the 100 over people should not be thrown out of their homes and lose their sole means of livelihood by the Alliance Government, without adequate compensation and alternative land to start a new life.
The people want a government with humanity and compassion, a government which understand the suffering of the poor people. Malaysian can afford to have less golf courses, prestigious but unproductive multi-million dollar projects, or overseas trips for Alliance leaders.
The plight of the 100 over people in Puchong 13 m. s. deserves the sympathy and support of all Malaysians with a social conscience. I urge the Alliance government to have a heart and take immediate action to give them a fair deal, which all Malaysians, regardless of race, are entitled to get from our country and government.
Audited by: Joyce T. and Faiz M.