by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, February 7, 1995;:
DAP suspends plan to make representation with the Kelantan State Government on the socio-economic rights of Tanah Putih farmers on their land problem to allow the MCA national leadership to champion the legal rights and status of the Tanah Putih farmers
I am shocked that after the visit of DAP leaders to Tanah Putih, Gua Musang on Sunday, the MCA national leadership through its MCA National Publicity Bureau has again attacked the DAP on the Tanah Putih land issue and maintain that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal rights to their land.
I had gone to Tanah Putih on Sunday with the promise that if there is one single Tanah Putih farmer who could produce tide to his land during my visit, the DAP would immediately institute legal proceeding against The Kelantan State Government for illegal and unconstitutional acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation.
I had said at the dialogue with the Tanah Putih fanners on Sunday that if they cannot produce title to their land and establish legal rights, then they will have to settle for the second option of fighting for their socio-economic rights of long-standing cultivation of their land to be recognised by the Kelantan State Government.
However, fighting for the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih farmers is the second choice – for the strongest case is still where the farmers could establish that they have legal rights which had been violated by the Kelantan State Government in disregard of the Constitution and the law, namely the Land Acquisition Act.
As the MCA national leadership still maintains in their latest statement by the MCA National Publicity Bureau that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal rights which had been violated by the Kelantan State Government, the DAP has decided to suspend immediately our plan to make representation with the Kelantan State Government on the socio-economic rights of Tanah Putih farmers on their land problem so as to allow the MCA national leadership to champion the legal rights and status of the Tanah Putih farmers.
The MCA has many brilliant and competent lawyers who must be able to see and find what I cannot see or find – that the Tanah Putin farmers have legal rights to their land.
The MCA has many brilliant and competent lawyers who must be able to see and find what I cannot see or find during my visit to Tanah Putih on Sunday -that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal rights to their land.
We are also mindful of the fact that the Gua Musang Branch Committee of the National Smallholders Association comprise 100 per cent of MCA members and that 98 per cent of the Tanah Putih farmers are MCA members.
The DAP will not allow party membership to stop us from fighting for justice and the rights of Malaysian citizens, but we do not want to jeopardise the rights of the Tanah Putih farmers if the MCA national leadership and its MCA Gua Musang Branch are fully convinced that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal rights to their land.
It is ridiculous for the MCA national leadership to challenge the DAP to go to court against the Kelantan State Government over the Tanah Putih land issue, as I have nor been able to see any documentation which proves that the Tanah Putih have legal rights to their land.
As it is the MCA national leadership which is so convinced that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal rights, then the MCA lawyers should take the Tanah Putih land case to court to defend the legal and constitutional rights of the Tanah Putih farmers.
If the DAP now makes representation with the Kelantan State Government, conceding that the Tanah Putih farmers have no legal rights but insisting that the Kelantan State Government should respect the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih farmers, this will jeopardise the legal case of the Tanah Putih farmers.
To avoid jeopardising the legal rights of the Tanah Putih farmers, the DAP will suspend our plan to make representation with the Kelantan State Government to respect the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih farmers, such as abandoning the plan to resettle Gua Musang squatters on the land of the Tanah Putih farmers, or compensation to the Tanah Putih farmers in terms of alternative land settlement and monetary compensation, until the MCA national leadership has publicly conceded that the Tanah Putih fanners have no legal rights to their land.
Once the MCA national leadership writes to DAP admitting that it has exhausted all legal avenues to defend the legal rights of Tanah Putih farmers, DAP will return to the Tanah Putih land issue to fight for the socio-economic rights of the farmers
I would advise the MCA national leadership to be serious-minded about the plight of the Tanah Putih farmers and not just to make use of the farmers, even though 98 per cent of them are MCA members, to score cheap political points. In fact, the MCA national leadership has a duty to act with greater responsibility in the Tanah Putih land case, precisely because 98 per cent of the farmers and 100 per cent of the Gua Musang Smallholders Committee are MCA members.
I am very surprised that under the circumstances, the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik has not even bothered to visit the Tanah Putih fanners in the past three years!
If the MCA national leadership is so convinced that the Tanah Putih farmers; have legal rights to their land, why is it taking such a long time to institute legal action to vindicate the legal rights of the Tanah Putih farmers in the courts? Surely, the MCA leadership has no reason to believe that the courts would be influenced by the Kelantan State Government!
The MCA national leadership is in fact guilty of the height of political irresponsibility in not taking the Kelantan Stats Government to court earlier, when they keep insisting that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal rights to their land. Surely, MCA leaders know that if Tanah Putih fanners have legal rights to their land, such legal rights could be protected and defended in the courts!
The DAP is not abandoning the fight for justice and fair play for the Tanah Putih farmers. But we do not want to undermine or jeopardise their legal rights if the MCA national leadership and their MCA members in Tanah Putih Gua Musang are so convinced that they have legal rights.
There is no need for the Tanah Putih farmers to fight for their socio-economic rights over their land, if they have legal rights.
However, once the MCA national leadership has exhausted all avenues to defend the legal rights of the Tanah Putih farmers, or the MCA national leadership admits that the Tanah Putih fanners do not have any legal rights in the first place, the DAP is prepared to resume its plan to make representation to the Kelantan State Government on the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih farmers.
Once I get an official letter from the MCA national leadership admitting that the Tanah Putih farmers have no legal rights, the DAP will immediately return to the Tanah Putih land issue to fight for their socio-economic rights.