The Malaysian Insight

THE Perak government today vowed to fight illegal farming activities by “corporate farmers” whom Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu accused of robbing the state and its people millions of ringgit annually.

On Tuesday, the Perak government set up a special committee to solve the squatter and illegal activity problems in the state to address the issue of corporate farmers, and to find ways to help small-time farmers get new farm land.

In the committee are district officers, state government-linked corporations, and relevant government agencies.

In its first meeting, 12 cases of illegal trespassing and farming were identified, with more expecting to be addressed within the year.

Faizal said illegal corporate farmers had been trespassing into state land for their farming operations for decades since the days of the Barisan Nasional administration.

These big-time farmers have illegally opened up estates of hundreds of hectares to grow cash crops like oil palm.

Faizal said it was estimated that over 60,000ha of land in the state were cleared for the illegal farming activities in 2011.

Despite the size of the operations, the state and the local community did not gain anything because the illegal farm owners hired foreign labourers without proper work permits.

“The locals got no jobs from them, and the state could not collect taxes that could had been used for welfare and development for the people.

“Meanwhile, these corporate farmers live in Singapore or in other large cities – spending their money there and contributing nothing to the Perak economy,” Faizal said today in Kampar.

He also said illegal farming had also made it difficult for Perak to draw in new investors, hampering growth in the state and losing potential job opportunities for locals.

The state has suitable land for investors to set up their businesses but the lands held by GLCs have already been encroached on by the illegal corporate farmers, he said.

Faizal said the previous administration had tried to solve the illegal farming problem by transferring the ownership of the trespassed land to GLCs, but the problem persisted.

“The number of encroachments involving state land decreased; but in reality, the trespassings never stopped. The problem was merely transferred to GLCs like the Perak Development Corporation.”

Faizal said the state government was not oppressing illegal farmers and Perak was losing a lot of revenue due to illegal farming activities.

“They could have generated huge revenues for the state. Instead, the state has to save up funds and be careful with our expenses to help those in need.

“Take our food and medical aid card programme introduced this year. We could only give the cards to 17,000 families when far more need it. We could not do more because we have been robbed by these illegal corporate farmers.”

Faizal said the state government would help the small-time farmers who depended on their farms to make a living.

“Our door is always open to them, regardless of race or religion. We will help them relocate to other farm land.

“We will help them move to more suitable places to ensure we can have planned development,” he said. – January 26, 2019.