LETTER | The government must cease land evictions

LETTER | All state governments must stop evicting ordinary citizens from the land on which they’re living, growing crops, or raising livestock.

Such evictions aim to alienate the land to government-linked companies (GLCs) or private companies to implement development projects.

One group significant to our country that has been facing eviction for a very long time are small farmers.

Based on history, these small farmers have been working on their land since before World War II.

Usually for eviction cases, the land used by these small farmers is first alienated to a GLC and later sold to private developers for housing or industrial projects.

The small farmers as such must vacate the land and are rarely offered suitable replacement land.

In Malaysia, about 25 percent of the total land area, or 8 million hectares, is used for agriculture.

Of that amount, more than 80 per cent of land is used for commodity crops (e.g. oil palm and rubber).

Only 0.4 million of the 8 million hectares is used to produce vegetables, fruits, freshwater fish and dairy products.

Food security

In addition, Malaysia has a high dependence on foreign countries for food, with a yearly import value of about RM60 billion.

We’re still very dependent on Thailand, Vietnam and India for our rice supply.

Most of our dairy products are also imported. Our local beef production is only about 22 percent, mutton 14 percent and milk 60 percent.

Suppose a major problem occurs whereby our currency’s value significantly depreciates or the climate crisis substantially worsens.

In that case, the prices of our imported food will rise dramatically and our country will face a severe food shortage, potentially resulting in a crisis.

As such, it cannot be denied that our country’s current food security status is weak.

Considering all the above factors, the ongoing evictions by state governments and companies of small farmers who produce food don’t make sense, given that it will worsen our food security status.

It also adversely affects the source of income of most small farmers and livestock rearers, regardless of their race, thus deteriorating the local economies.

In addition, there are many cases of eviction of small farmers where they were willing to pay rent to the government earlier, but the land office refused to approve their applications.

Instead, the land office gave land ownership rights to parties who had never worked on that land.

Therefore, allegations that these small farmers want to use the land for free and refuse to pay rent are clearly not true.

Evictions also adversely affect urban squatters and settlers from the B20 group who have occupied the land for a long time.

They do not have the financial resources to move and rent low-cost houses elsewhere and, therefore, are forced to occupy that land.

Evictions reveal the true intentions of certain politicians and bureaucrats in state governments.

They are more concerned with the interests of certain developers and companies for profit than ordinary people's socioeconomic statuses and livelihood, especially the B40 group.

Systemic reforms

The federal government together with the state governments need to change their political mindset and implement systemic reforms at the state and federal levels immediately to stop evictions, such as:

1. Immediately stopping all evictions of farmers.

2. Maintaining areas being worked on for growing vegetables, fish rearing or cattle rearing as food production areas and not being alienated from any party for any development project.

The Standard Operating Procedures for all state governments in Malaysia related to land alienation must be amended to protect small farmers working on the land.

Any development projects should instead be carried out on abandoned land.

3. Leasing existing land for 10-20 years to small farmers, with the condition that the land can only be used to produce food and cannot be converted to palm oil plantations.

This includes land that has been alienated to developers but is still being worked on by small farmers and livestock rearers.

4. Amending laws such as the National Land Code and the Land Acquisition Act to recognise and legalise urban squatters and settlers who’ve occupied the land for over 20 years.

This is by providing them land ownership at reasonable prices, upgrading their basic surrounding infrastructure and essential services, and providing them with low-interest small loans to make repairs and upgrade their houses.

5. Amending land laws to create a check-and-balance mechanism to ensure that the government’s land assets are not liquidated; to gain political funds or for the self-interests of those in power.

State-level committees with veto powers must be established to stop land alienation if it affects poor communities, including small farmers and livestock rearers.

The federal and state governments must take holistic measures like the above immediately to stop evictions and responsibly protect our B40 and marginalised communities.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.