Ulu Yam
Vegetable farmers face eviction: Selangor MB turns his back on PM's
agricultural policy
Press Statement
by Ronnie Liu
(Kuala Lumpur,
Wednesday):
36 vegetable farmers in Ulu Yam have received eviction orders from the
Selangor State Government to give way to housing developers. The farmers
here have been growing vegetables for the past three generations but their
application for land rights were never successful for the past one hundred
years.
The state government was fully aware
of the fact that the Ulu Yam farms ( about 600 acres)is the largest
vegetables producer in the state as Ch’ng Toh Eng, a state exco member,
happens to be the advisor of the Selangor Vegetables Traders Association.
According to the association, 80% of the vegetables sold in the Selayang
Wholesale Market, the state’s largest vegetables market, were in fact
produced in Ulu Yam.
Agriculture has been ignored by the
Mahathir administration for too long, so much so that Malaysia has been
relying very heavily on the import of foods for the past twenty years. The
total bill on imported foods has risen from RM 9 billion in 1997 to RM14
billion in 2003.
The Prime Minister seems to be aware
of the serious problem and he has been talking about the significance and
importance of agriculture for the past one year. But the Selangor Mentri
Besar seems to have turned his back on the Prime Minister's policy.
(Incidentally, the Selangor MB also
turns his back to the DPM Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who ordered every state
government to gazette all water catchment areas to protect valuable water
resources after chairing the 18th National Forest Council meeting on 4th
November 2004 in Putrajaya. He has allowed incinerators and landfills to be
built in environment-sensitive water catchment areas time and again.)
One can only expect our imported food
bill to jump another few notches when more and more farms like the one in
Ulu Yam were forced to give way to housing and other forms of development.
DAP Selangor will be paying a visit
to the Ulu Yam farms on Saturday morning to meet the farmers. We will
certainly offer our solidarity to the farmers and do our best to protect the
largest vegetable farms in the state.
We would also highlight to the
farmers about the threat from the proposed Bukit Tagar landfill in the
vicinity. Bukit Tagar sits right in the Sg Tengi water catchment area. If
the Bukit Tagar landfill is allowed to be built as planned, it will
certainly bring nightmares not only to the farmers in Ulu Yam, but also to
those in Sekinchan and Tanjung Karang. Even the famous Ulu Yam Dam may be
adversely affected in the long run, and the people in Kuala Lumpur and
Selangor may risk losing yet another valuable water resource.
(24/11/2004)
*
Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew, DAP
International Secretary and NGO bureau chief
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http://dapmalaysia.org