by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, February 16, 1995:
Challenge to MCA national leadership to go to court to prove that the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers have special legal rights in Malaysia – where they have legal rights to their land without any title
It is clear that the MCA national leadership has rejected the DAP proposal for a stop of political exchanges between the MCA arid DAP on the Tanah Putih land issue and that both parties co-operate to resolve the problem of the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers.
This is why the MCA national leadership, through its MCA National Publicity Bureau, has again come out with another statement, making false claims and baseless allegations.
I am very surprised that the MCA national leadership is still insisting that the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers have legal rights and claims to their land although they do not have land titles.
Can the MCA national leadership answer a simple question: If it is so confident about the legal rights of the Tanah Putih farmers – 98 per cent of whom are MCA members and 100 per cent of the Gua Musang Branch Committee of the National Smallholders Association come from MCA – why has the MCA national leadership not gone to court in the last three years to vindicate their legal rights and claims?
Why is the MCA national leadership insisting that the DAP must go to court to fight for the legal rights of the Tanah Putih MCA members – when the MCA itself dare not go to court as neither the MCA national leadership nor the Gua Musang MCA could produce a single title to prove land ownership of any MCA Tanah Putih member?
DAP challenge the MCA national leadership to go to court to prove that the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers have special legal rights in Malaysia – where they have legal, rights to their land without any title.
If it cannot do so, then the MCA national leadership should stop making false claims.
In its latest statement, the MCA national leadership referred to the land issues of Kampung Kundang in Selangor and Kampong Restu in Segamat where the DAP fought for the rights of the farmers to their lands and crops.
The MCA leadership should be thoroughly ashamed of itself that unlike the DAP, it had not lifted a finger to fight for the rights of the farmers in Kampong Kundang and Kampong Restu.
The farmers at Kampong Kundang in Selangor and Kampong Restu in Segamat do not have legal titles and this was why the focus of the DAP fight on their behalf was for their socio-economic rights.
MCA national leadership must bear full responsibility for whatever adverse consequences suffered by the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers over their land issue because of its negative and destructive attitude
The DAP has already publicly stated that we are similarly prepared to fight for the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putin MCA members and farmers, who have established very strong socio-economic rights as some of them had opened and cultivated Tanah Putih as far back as 25 years.
However, it is the MCA national leadership which objected to the DAP fighting for the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers, insisting that the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers have legal rights and claims and that the DAP must go to court to vindicate these legal rights and claims of the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers.
The MCA national leadership is now the biggest obstacles to the DAP making representation to the Kelantan State Government for their socio-economic rights to their land in Tanah Putih for the DAP is not prepared to fight for the socio-economic rights for the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers and yet get accused by the MCA national leadership of betraying the legal rights of MCA members.
It is now completely left to the MCA national leadership as to whether the DAP is able to make representation to the Kelantan State Government to establish the socio-economic rights of the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers. Either the MCA national leadership go to court and vindicate these legal rights or let the MCA national leadership be honest enough to admit that the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers do not have such legal rights to their land.
It is clear that to the MCA national leadership, the fate of the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers are irrelevant as they are treated only as MCA political pawns to hit at the DAP.
If the MCA national leadership continues with its negative and destructive attitude, refusing to go to court to vindicate legal rights of the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers to their land and stopping the DAP Efforts to fight for their socio-economic rights, the MCA national leadership must bear fail responsibility for whatever adverse consequences suffered by the Tanah Putih MCA members and farmers over their land issue.