by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on February 8, 1995:
MCA national leadership should not delay any longer to defend the legal rights of the Tanah Putin farmers who are 98 per cent MCA members, as the farmers are worried that they may be evicted from their land immediately after the general elections
MCA national leadership should not delay any longer to take all necessary action to defend the legal rights of the Tanah Putih farmers in Gua Musang as the farmers are worried that they may be evicted from their land immediately after the general elections.
This is all the more imperative as 98 per cent of the Tanah Putih farmers are MCA members and 100 per cent of the Gua Musang Branch Committee of the National Smallholders Association are MCA members.
The DAP would have no hesitation in instituting legal action against the Kelantan State Government for illegal and unconstitutional acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act without compensation if the Tanah Putih farmers could produce title to their land to establish their legal rights.
However, during my visit to Tanah Putih, Gua Musang with other DAP MPs and leaders on Sunday, no single Tanah Putih farmer had been able to produce title to their land.
This is why the DAP had intended to make representation to the Kelantan State Government to respect the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih farmers as a result of long-standing opening and cultivation of the Tanah Putih land, including asking the Kelantan State Government to choose another site and abandon the plan to resettle Gua Musang squatters on the land of the Tanah Putih farmers, or to compensate the Tanah Putih farmers in terms of alternative land settlement and monetary terms.
However, this will undermine and jeopardise the legal rights and claims of the Tanah Putih farmers, and as the MCA national leadership still insists after my visit on Sunday that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal rights to their land, the DAP has suspended its plan to make representation to the Kelantan State Government en the socio-economic rights and claims of the Tanah Putih farmers.
DAP offers its legal services to the MCA national leadership to prepare its case to defend the legal rights and claims of the Tanah Putih farmers
Although I cannot at the moment convince myself that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal rights to their land, I respect the MCA’s stand that the Tanah Putih farmers have legal rights and claims especially as 98 per cent of the farmers are MCA members and 100 per cent of the Gua Musang Branch Committee of the National Smallholders Association are MCA member’s. Probably the MCA national leadership, with its battery of lawyers throughout the country, knows more things than me.
This is why the DAP has suspended its plan to make representation to the Kelantan State Government on the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih Farmers as we do not want to take any action which will undermine the legal rights and claims of the Tanah Putih farmers.
No one will be happier than me if the MCA national leadership can succeed in its legal action to defend the legal rights and claims of the Tanah Putih farmers, and for this reason, the DAP is prepared to give every assistance including offering its legal services to the MCA national leadership in its case to defend the legal rights and claims of the Tanah Putih farmers.
For the sake of the Tanah Putih farmers, I would advise the MCA national leadership to concentrate all its resources and energies in the legal battle to defend the legal rights and claims of the Tanah Putih farmers instead of using the Tanah Putih land case for cheap political propaganda.
The MCA national leadership should realise that it has nothing to be proud about its handling of the Tanah Putih land issue so far, especially as 98 per cent of the Tanah Putih farmers and 100 per cent of the Gua Musang Branch Committee of the National Smallholders Association are MCA members.
Finally, the MCA national leadership should direct the MCA National Publicity Bureau to have higher respect for truth and to stop manufacturing lies. For instance, the MCA National Publicity Bureau claims that 500 Tanah Putih farmers are affected when the Gua Musang MCA Branch officials admitted that this figure of 500 is a concoction as the number affected are approximately 150 farmers.