Lim Kit Siang to raise the problem of 900,000 new villagers and the retrenched estate labourers in next week’s Parliament
DAP Member of Parliament for Bandar Malaka, Mr.Lim Kit Siang, has given notice that he would be raising several questions concerning the future of 900,000 new villagers and the retrenches estate labourers in the country.
Some of these questions are:
1. To ask the Prime Minister
(i) to state the amount of funds that had been spent by the Minister of Special Function in charge of new villages, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, to carry out his Ministerial duties and functions in the first six months of his office;
(ii) total number of staff and personal which had been allocated to the same Minister, giving their designations, functions and remuneration.
2. To ask the Minister of Special Functions for new villages to state whether he would resign from the Cabinet as he had not been given funds to turn the depressed new villages into thriving economic centres which can give land, jobs and homes to the 900,000 new villagers in Malaysia.
3. To ask the Minister of Agriculture what action is being taken to completely reorganise the land offices throughout the country so that there can be expeditious issue of land titles, and not like the present, where there are cases of titles, and not like the present, where there are cases of titles which had not yet been issued after 20-years of waiting and correspondence for land owned by the applicant.
4. To ask the Minister of Special Functions to list the total number of new villages in each of the following States: Selangor, Perak, Negri Sembilan, Malacca, Johore, Pahang; giving for each new village the following data:
(i) population during initial settlement, giving year of settlement;
(ii) present population;
(iii) whether any government clinics;
(iv) state whether land titles have been issued to original settlers, and if so, the length of leases that have been issued, whether 99 years, 66 years, etc.
5. To ask the Minister of Labour and Man Power
(i) whether he is aware of the grave problem of mass retrenchment and unemployment in the rubber estate Malaysia;
(ii) what step his Ministry has taken to find alternative employment and means of livelihood for these retrenched estate labourers many of whom have spent the best part of their lives in the rubber industry;
(iii) whether he is aware that some managements of estates are refusing to re-employ retrenched estate labourers even when there are job opportunities, on the ground that they are prohibited by the Ministry of Labour because of the racial imbalance in employment; and
(iv) whether he would issue a directive to all estate managements to give first priority of employment and re-employment to retrenched estate labourers so that the pledge of the Government’s Second Malaysia Plan that “no one will experience any loss or feel any sense of deprivation of his rights, privileges, income, job or opportunity” in its implementation would be honoured.
6. To ask the Minister of Labour and Manpower whether the 16 estate labourers thrown out of work as a result of the fragmentation of the Puchong Estate in Selangor had been given alternative employment as promised by the manager of Puchong Estate, Mr. Lim Tuan Siong, who is also State Executive Councillor of Selangor; and if not, what action his Ministry has taken to protect the livelihood and future of these estate labourers and their dependants.
7. To ask the Minister of Trade and Industry to state the number of new jobs created in the manufacturing sector in1971, the first year operation of the First Malaysia Plan.
8. To ask the Minister of Labour and Manpower whether it is the policy of the government to set up an industrial court for each state, and if so, when this policy will be fully implemented.
9. To ask the Minister of Labour and Manpower to list the students who have been granted scholarships or loans under the South Indian Labour Fund this year, giving particulars of each recipients on
(i) amount awarded;
(ii) study being pursued;
(iii) the name of the student’s father, the father’s occupation and address
10. To ask the Minister of Communication whether the government has taken a policy decision that gates should be built at all railway crossings to prevent recurrence of tragic accidents like the Pasir Mas disaster where 13 people were killed; and if so, to state when this policy would be implemented; and if not,why not.