by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary- General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, December 17. 1994:
Keng Yaik has failed the smallholders of Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang in praising and supporting the Johore State Government land acquisition of 33,000 acres for Second Johore-Singapore Crossing and Second JB Township without equitable compensation terms
The Gerakan President and Minister for Primary Industries, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, admitted in Johore Bahru yesterday that there had been land acquisition abuses and injustices in several states although he declined to name the states.
What is shocking is that Keng Yaik praised the Johore State Government claiming that its acquisition of the 33,000 acres of Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang for the second Johore-Singapore Crossing and the Second Johore Bahru township should be the model for other states when he knew about the abuses and injustices involved.
Keng Yaik has foiled the smallholders of Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupanq, for a few months ago, Keng Yaik had expressed support and sympathy for theses smallholders whose land had been
acquired for the Second Johore-Singapore Link and Second Johore Bahru township, and advising them to get independent valuation of their land to get justice and fair treatment.
Keng Yaik had also violated the Gerakan pledge in 1991 made after the 20th Gerakan Delegates Conference in August 1991 that the Gerakan would set up a special committee comprising Gerakan lawyers headed by the Gerakan Secretary-General Datuk Chan Choong Tak to monitor the implementation of the Land Acquisition Act to prevent abuses and injustices.
Has the Chan Choong Tat Gerakan Committee to fight land acquisition abuses investigated in detail into the land acquisition abuses and injustices faced by the Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang smallholders?
Is it fair and equitable that after the smallholders concerned had listened to the advice of the Johore Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Muhyideen Yassin and the Information Minister, Datuk Mohamed Rahmat as MP for the area in 1990 not to sell their land at RM100,000 per acre, but to wait for the appreciation of the land value when the Second Johore-Singapore and Second JB Township projects are approved, that they are now offered only a fraction of the 1990 market price of RM100, 000 per acre as compensation?
Is it fair and equitable to the smallholders that they have not been offered the opportunity to take part in the development of their land under -the second JB Township masterplan, when this was specifically promised by Ghafar Baba as Deputy Prime Minister in 1991? –
Is Keng Yaik sacrificing the rights and interests of the smallholders of Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang just to get an extra allocation of parliamentary and state assembly seats for Gerakan in Johore for the next-general elections?
If the Chan Choong Tat Gerakan committee had not investigated into the Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang land acquisition cases of abuses and injustices, how could Keng Yaik praise the Johore State Government on this land acquisition?
It is public knowledge that the Gerakan is interested in getting extra allocation of at least- one new Parliamentary and one State Assembly constituency in Johore in the next general elections.
Is Keng Yaik sacrificing the rights, and interests of the smallholders of Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang just to get an extra allocation of parliamentary and state assembly seats for Gerakan in Johore for the next general elections?
The Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang smallholders are entitled to an answer from Keng Yaik as to whether their rights and interests on the Second Johore-Singapore crossing and Second JB Township projects have been sacrificed by Gerakan just to allow Gerakan to get extra allocation of parliamentary and state assembly seats for the coming general elections?