by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, January 10, 1995:
DAP to organise Conferences Against Land Acquisition Abuses and Injustices in the various states and districts to demand restoration to landowners the right to challenge arbitrary, inequitable and unfair land acquisitions
The historic and most successful National Conference Against Land Acquisition Abuses and Injustices at the Federal Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, which was attended by over 1,000 landowners, smallholders and villagers throughout the country, is a great start to a national campaign for reforms to the Land Acquisition Act to strike a fairer balance between development needs and the property rights of Malaysians.
The DAP will next organise Conferences Against Land Acquisition Abuses and Injustices in the various states and districts to demand restoration to landowners the right to challenge arbitrary, inequitable and unfair land acquisitions.
The four-page Resolution proclaiming Nine Principles for a Fair and Just Land Acquisition Law adopted by the National Conference Against Land Acquisition Abuses and Injustices on Sunday will be taken to all the states and districts to receive popular support.
The Cabinet at its meeting tomorrow should seriously consider the proposal made on Sunday that the Government establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into three aspects of land acquisition:
*the widespread land acquisition abuses and injustices in the past three years;
*the broken promises of the Barisan Nasional Government to ensure that there would be no land acquisition abuses and injustices and that landowners will not become ‘victims of development’ and would become full and active ‘partners and participants in the development process’ ; and
*holding public hearings on the Nine Principles for a Fair Land Acquisition Act adopted by the National Conference Against Land Acquisition Abuses and Injustices on Sunday and to make recommendations for a new Land Acquisition Law which will strike a fairer balance between
development needs and the property rights of Malaysians.
UMNO, MCA and Gerakan must bear full responsibility for the widespread land acquisition abuses and injustices in the various states in the past three years.
The Barisan Nasional parties, in particular UMNO, MCA and Gerakan, must bear full responsibility for the widespread land acquisition abuses and injustices in the various states in the past three years, as they all stem from the passage of the 1991 Land Acquisition Amendment Act.
I had led the DAP opposition to the 1991 Land Acquisition Amendment Act in Parliament on July 30, where I warned that the new land acquisition was a gross violation of the constitutional rights to property entrenched by Article 13 of the Malaysian Constitution powers would be “the mother of all corruption, abuses of power, conflicts-of-interest and unethical practices under the National Development Policy and the Second Outline Perspective Plan 1991-2000”.
Although the MCA and Gerakan Ministers and MPs initially expressed reservations about the new land acquisition powers, publicly and when it comes to voting in Parliament, they tamely voted in support.
At that time, the then Deputy Prime Minister, Ghafar Baba, in trying to allay widespread reservations and opposition to the 1991 Land Acquisition Amendment Act, gave assurances on behalf of the Barisan Nasional Government that there would be elective safeguards and that the new land acquisition powers of the government would not be abused and, in particular, made the following specific promises:
*that all land acquired is for the benefit of the nation and people;
*that all state governments have to comply with a guideline on land acquisition which will protect the rights and interests of the people;
*that the original landowner can take part in the development of their land where the acquisition is for development by the private sector;
*that where the government acquire land, especially from the poor, it would provide alternative land to ensure that each citizen is able to build a house; and
*that the people can seek redress in the ‘court of the people’ if the ‘court of the judges’ are unable to give justice, as in giving adequate compensation, in land acquisition cases.
There are all broken promises as testified by the widespread land acquisition abuses and injustices in the various states in the country in the past three years.
UMNO, MCA and Gerakan and other Barisan Nasional parties whose Ministers and MPs had been responsible for enacting the 1991 Land Acquisition Amendment Act must step forward to support the call of the National Conference Against Land Acquisition Abuses and Injustices that all controversial land acquisition projects should be frozen until a law incorporating the Nine Principle for Fair Land Acquisition had been passed or that they should be resolved in accordance with the nine principles.