Metro

Saturday May 11, 2013

Plight over farm land

By FOONG PEK YEE
pekyee@thestar.com.my


Working hard for a living: Farmers have been toiling hard for two to three generations on the land in Bidor. — filepic Working hard for a living: Farmers have been toiling hard for two to three generations on the land in Bidor. — filepic

A GROUP of 1,000 farmers in Batang Padang district in southern Perak will set up their own association to fight for their rights.

The protem chairman is farmer Liew Kian Hoo, 63, from Bidor Station New Village.

The farmers’ spokesman Michael Yap, 62, said the association’s first major task was to submit a memorandum on their plight to Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.

“We expect to form the association and submit the memorandum three months from now,” said Yap, a fruit farmer for over 20 years, on Thursday.

He said the membership of the association — Persatuan Petani Batang Padang — would come from villages like Kuala Bikam, Cold Stream, Bidor Station, Tanah Mas, Bukit Pagar, Pekan Pasir and Sungkai.

He said the farmers had been facing many problems over the years and they needed “ to unite and have a voice” when dealing with the authorities.

Yap who plants guava and cempedak in Tanah Mas and Sungkai said their problems stemmed from the fact that they did not have proper documents to work on the land.

“The authorities said we are not entitled to government subsidy because we do not have land documents.

Over a cuppa: Chai (left) and Liew Yee Fong, both said farmers had contributed a lot to the country’s economy. Over a cuppa: Chai (left) and Liew Yee Fong, both said farmers had contributed a lot to the country’s economy.

“Even the police refused to allow us to lodge police reports when people steal our fruits and vegetables.

“The police said we have no proof that the fruits and vegetables belong to us because the land is not ours,” Yap said.

Farmer Ling Lye Wei from Bidor Station New Village said the farmers fear was that the sand mining towkays would resume their sand mining activities in village soon.

There was a reprieve during the general election period, he added.

“It is time for the government to put the “People First” slogan into practice,” said Ling, 36.

Another farmer Edward Chai Kean Mun said the authorities could not just ingore the farmers who had been toiling on the land for two to three generations.

“The authorities said we are illegal farmers and yet they collect tax from us,” said Chai, 26.

He said the farmers had to struggle all the while because they did not have proper documents to work on the land.

“We cannot get a bank loan when we face difficulties in our business because we neither have a lease nor title to the farm land,” he said.

Another farmer Alice Kong, 54, who has been planting oil palm in Tanah Mas New Village for more than 10 years said the price of palm oil was worrying.

She said there was an urgent need to settle the land issues affecting them so the farmers could focus on other problems.

Meanwhile, Yap also showed a map which he claimed showed farm land totalling 161ha being earmarked for development.

He said the map was dated back to 2008, and farmers feared that the authorities would come for the land very soon.

Yap said the farm land, mostly ex-mining land was unsuitable for farming until the farmers did a lot of hardwork to level the place.

He hoped Dr Zambry would recognise the farmers’ contributions to the country’s food production over the decades.

Besides, some of the produce was also exported and this had contributed to the country’s revenue, he added.

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