Tun Razak promises to investigate into corrupt practices and cheating of 1,500 Machap Umboo new villagers of their rightful compensation for government land acquisition
I met the Prime Minister, Tun Razak, in Parliament on Monday, and reported to him of corrupt practices in the question of compensation to the New Villagers of Machap Umboo New Village, as the entire village is being acquired by the State Water Authority for the Durian Tunggal water scheme. Some 1,500 people are affected by this scheme. Machap Umboo is about 18 miles from the Malacca town.
When I visited the Machap Umboo new village on 10th July, o found that the new villagers there were being cheated of their rightful compensation from the government. The majority of the Machap Umboo new villagers were ignorant of their rights. As a result, they were taken advantage of by a racket which came to tell them that they would get very low compensation for their houses, but that if they would pay 10% commission to ‘middle-men’ out of the total compensation after they had been raise upwards, the government would compensate them very much more.
There had been cases where after the intervention of such ‘middle men’, the villagers were told that they had their original compensation offers raised by over $10,000. The middle-men would profit per case in the region of $1,500 to $2,000 – which legitimately belonged to the new villagers. Out of ignorance, the new villagers have been cheated out of the 10% of what is rightfully theirs – for this was actually the compensation assessed by the Valuation Officer, but which they were not aware of.
It is clear that this racket is not possible without some inside involvement in the Land Office.
Tun Razak promised to look into this matter. I also told him that a lot of malpractices took place in other land acquisition schemes in the Malacca State.
DAP calls on Malacca State Government to increase compensation to Machap Umboo new villagers by 50 per cent
Here, I would call on the Malacca State Government not to delay in raising the compensation to Machap Umboo new villagers by at least 50 per cent.
The first batch of offers, involving some 50 per cent of the new villagers, were made and concluded in 1972, Since these last two years, the prices of building materials have shot up, some by 100, 200 per cent.
The government has not paid this first batch of Machap Umboo new villagers any compensation money yet, and as during the last 2 years, the purchasing power of the Malaysian dollar has shrunk greatly, the Malacca State Government should raise the compensation terms by 50 per cent to ensure that the Machap Umboo new villagers do not suffer from inflation and general development in the State.