by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, 6th February 1995:
DAP has not been able to institute legal proceedings against the Kelantan State Government for illegal and unconstitutional acquisition of land under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation as not a singleTanah Putih, Gua Musang farmer has been able to produce title to their land
Yesterday, I was accompanied by four DAP MPs, a DAP State Assemblymen, DAP, DAPSY and Wanita DAP leaders in my visit to Tanah Putih, Gua Musang to understand the problems of the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang farmers.
The DAP leaders who visited Tanah Putih, Gua Musang with me include DAP Deputy Secretary-General and MP for Siputeh, Liew Ah Kim, DAP National Organising Secretary and MP for Pasir Pinji, Kerk Kim Hock, DAP National Publicity Secretary and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng, DAP Assistant Organising Secretary and MP for Sungei Besi, Tan Kok Wai, DAP Assistant Publicity Secretary and MP for Bukit Bintang, Wee Choo Keong, Pahang DAP State Chairman, Lip Tuck Chee, and Pahang Assemblyman for Triang and Pahang DAP State Secretary, Leong Ngah Ngah.
I had announced before the visit that if there is one single Tanah Putih farmer who could produce a title to their land, the DAP would immediately institute legal proceedings against the Kelantan State Government for illegal and unconstitutional acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation.
However, there was not, a single Tanah Putih farmer who could produce title to their land.
In actual fact, the Secretary to the Gua Musang branch of the Persatuan Kebangsaan Pekebun-Pekebun Kecil Malaysia, Cheong Tai Onn, had officially admitted in a letter to the Deputy Kelantan Mentri Besar, Haji Abdul Halim bin Abdul Rahman dated 4th May 1994 that the Tanah Putih farmers are illegal farmers as none of them has title.
In this letter, a copy of which was made available to me by Cheong Tai Onn himself, Cheong Tai Onn admitted that “Lot-Lot kebun getah tersebut sehingga sekarang masih belum mempunyai Q.T. (Geran)”.
Cheong Tai Onn admitted at the dialogue between DAP leaders and the Committee of the Gua Musang Branch of the Persatuan Kebangsaan Pekebun-Pekebun Kecil Malaysia yesterday that 100 per cent of his committee members are MCA members and that 98 per cent of the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang smallholders are MCA members.
This is very pertinent. As the problem of the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang farmers had received the highest attention of the top MCA leadership, is the failure of the MCA leadership in the past three years to institute legal action against the Kelantan State Government an admission on the part of the MCA leadership that the Tanah Putih farmers have no legal title on which the Kelantan State Government could be sued successfully for illegal and unconstitutional acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation?
If the MCA leadership by its actions in the past three years have admitted that the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang farmers have no legal title to their land, and have no basis to sue the Kelantan State Government for acting illegally and unconstitutionally under the Land Acquisition Act, why is the MCA leadership so dishonest and hypocritical in wanting the DAP to take up the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang case as an acquisition case under the Land Acquisition Act?
It is significant that at the dialogue yesterday, Cheong Tai Onn clarified that he had never claimed that the Tanah Putih case is a case of Land Acquisition Act acquisition.
DAP gives MCA national leadership a final two-week deadline to produce proof that Tanah Putih farmers have title to their land before the DAP focus on the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih farmers and take up their case with the Kelantan State Government
DAP has not been able to institute legal proceedings against the Kelantan State Government for illegal and unconstitutional acquisition of land under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation as not a single Tanah Putih, Gua Musang farmer has been able to produce title to their land during the visit of the DAP leaders to Tanah Putih yesterday.
However, the DAP stands by its undertaking that once a Tanah Putih, Gua Musang farmer could produce title to their land, the DAP would have no hesitation in instituting legal proceedings against the Kelantan State Government for illegal and unconstitutional action in acquiring land under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation.
May be, the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, should make a personal visit to Tanah Putih, Gua Musang himself to get documentary proof that the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang farmers have title to their land and if he could do so, he should pass the title to me for DAP to sue the Kelantan State Government.
Although the Gua Musang Branch of the Parsatuan Kebangsaan Pekebun-Pekebun Kecil Malaysia has officially admitted that the Tanah Putih, Gua Musang farmers do not have legal title to their land – and are therefore illegal farmers – this does not mean that the Kelantan State Government can ignore the socio-economic rights of the farmers who have opened tip Tanah Putih as far back as the 1960s.
I have promised in Tanah Putih yesterday that the BAP would transmit to the Kelantan State Government the requests of the Persatuan Kebangsaan Pekebun-Pekebun Kecil Malaysia and to speak up and fight for justice for the Tanah Putih farmers.
However, I must decide whether I should pursue the matter from the legal point of view or from standpoint of socio-economic justice.
If the Tanah Putih farmers have title to their land, then the battle for justice for them would be a primarily legal one. However, if they have no legal title, then we must abandon the legal fight and pursue it strictly from the socio-economic angle – the right of the people to have land for cultivation and the obligation of any government to respect the socio-economic rights of cultivation of the people.
As it is the MCA national leadership which has been giving the people and country the belief that the Tanah Putih farmers are legal owners of their land and that the Kelantan State Government had violated the Land Acquisition Act and the constitutional rights to property of Malaysians, I am giving the MCA leadership a final two-week deadline to produce proof of legal title of the Tanah Putih fanners before I communicate with the Kelantan State Government on the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih farmers.
If in the next two weeks, the MCA national leadership cannot produce proof that the Tanah Putih fanners have legal title and are victims of the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Kelantan State Government tinder the Land Acquisition Act, then the DAP will focus on the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih farmers to have a fair and just settlement of their long-standing opening and cultivation in Tanah Putih in our representation to the Kelantan State Government.
I hope the MCA national leadership will be able to make clear by February 20 whether it maintains that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal and constitutional rights to their land, where the courts would be the last resort to protect the legal and constitutional rights of Malaysians or whether it now agrees that an effort to get justice for the Tanah Putih farmers must proceed solely from the socio-economic standpoint.
The DAP will meanwhile study the full facts of the Tanah Putih case, and I will be writing to the Gua Musang Branch of the Persatuan Kebangsaan Pekebun-Pekebun Kecil Malaysia for more information to build up the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih farmers for just treatment from the Kelantan State Government, as what I have been given yesterday during my visit to Tanah Putih is quite incomplete.
Cheong Tai Onn should send me an address where my letters and telegrams can reach him, as he claims that he had never received my previous letters and telegram although they had been sent to the address which he had himself given in his letter to me.