Since Channel News Asia (CAN) had recently reported about the skyrocketing increment of land lease price of Cameron Highlands agricultural land, the Pahang State Government had criticized and condemned the report.
I would like to remind the state government that the fact is crystal clear: The 500% increment of land fee imposed by the state government is an established fact.
The state government should not beat about the bush by looking for erroneous excuses to cover up the truth, as it will merely become a laughing stock to the people and even to the world.
Recently, CNA from Singapore made a detailed report on the increment of the agricultural land lease in Cameron Highlands, and quoted the opinions of many local farmers in order to get a full picture about the upcoming repercussions of implementing the new land lease policy.
However, the state government did not agree with and condemned the report, by accusing the media for making an inaccurate report to smear the state government for not being sympathetic towards the local farmers.
The state government introduced the new changes in Cameron Highlands agricultural land policy in early 2020, which converted all Temporary Operating Licenses (TOL) of agricultural land into agricultural land leases (Sewaan). The yearly TOL fee (including water bills) costs about RM900 per acre per year, whereas the new yearly land rental costs RM4,500 per acre.
In other words, for the same farm of the same size, the farmers used to pay RM900 in 2019, yet have to pay RM4,500 in 2020. It doesn’t take a genius to know that there is a 500% increase in land fee.
How can the state government blatantly lie to the public by claiming that there is no increment in land fee?
The state government’s argument, that the latest rental will not affect farmers and the agricultural product markets, does not reflect the actual predicament faced by small and medium farmers as well as flower farmers on the ground.
For example, Cameron Highlands’s flower industry suffered heavy losses due to the severe impact brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the sharp drop in demand, the export of flowers plummeted by 90%.
Also, since different regions in the world are still seeing spikes in Covid-19 cases, it is still uncertain whether the global economy can fully resuscitate in the short term. Therefore, when the flower industry will continue to suffer losses in the foreseeable future, the skyrocketing rent will undoubtedly increase the farmers’ production costs.
I have called on the state government to review the existing Cameron Highlands agricultural land lease by categorising it into two categories:
As for the first category, namely farms less than 2 acres, the state government should provide at least a 50% annual rent discount to the farmers; As for the second category, namely farms more than 2 acres, the state government can maintain the existing annual rent rate.
Since the number of small farmers who own less than 2 acres of farms will not be too many, such a measure will not affect the overall revenue of the state government.
On the other hand, the government can help prevent small farmers from being marginalized and severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since the overall economy has been severely affected by the pandemic, the state government should provide necessary assistance to small farmers to ride out the storm together instead of increasing their burden.
Apart from that, it should not blame and reprimand the foreign media because they reported the issue affecting the livelihood of farmers in an objective and impartial manner.