Press statement (2) by the Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary General and MP f or Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 16th December, 1994
Call on Johore Mentri Besar Muhyiddin Yassin to announce in the Johore state assembly tommorrow a special government compensation scheme for misleading the Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang smallholders not to sell their land in 1990 at RM100, 000 per acre
DAP calls on the Johore Mentri Besar Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to announce in the Johore state assembly tommorrow a special government compensation scheme for misleading the Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang smallholders not to sell their land in 1990 at RN100, 000 per acre.
The smallholders feel cheated and robbed of their property rights because in 1990, they had listened the advice of Tan Sri Muhyiddin and the’ Information Minister Datuk Mohamad Rahmat not to sell their land at RM100, 000 per acre as both leaders promised that their land values would appreciate even higher when the Second Johore-Singapore Link and the second Johore Baru township project have been approved.
However, the smallholders have found that by accepting the advice of Tan Sri Muhyiddin and Datuk Mohamad Rahmat and refusing offers of RM100, 000 per acre for their land in 1990, they now suffer tremendous losses.
Their smallholdings have been acquired by the state government as pan of the 33,000 acres required by the United Engineers Malaysia Berhad (UEM) to carry out the development of the Second. Johore-Singapore Link and second Johore Bahru towns hip, and they are offered compensation only at a fraction of the 1990 market price of RM100, 000 per acre.
This is a clear case where the state government had misled the Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang smallholders and the Johore Mentri Besar owes the smallholders full responsibility to compensate them for their losses.
The UEM and its subsidiary companies will be making fantastic profit from the Second Link and the second Johore Bahru township projects and there is no reason why the UEM cannot afford to give the affected smallholders fairer and more equitable compensation terms.
Furthermore, Tan Sri Muhyiddin should also explain in the Johore state assembly tommorow why the Johore state government had dishonoured the pledge given by Ghafar Baba when he was Deputy Prime Minister in 1991 that smallholders affected by land acquisitions for development by private companies would be given the opportunity to take part in the development of their land.