The latest decision made by Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah on Ops Gading has proven that the new government consistently prioritizes the rakyat.
The new government appreciates opinions by all quarters and places emphasis on the balance between every aspect and development before making a decision. Suchmodus operandi has demonstrated a crucial difference whereby the new government does not repeat the recklessness of BN government in making important decisions.
Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah and Pahang Chief Minister Wan Rosdy co-chaired the Cameron Highlands Rehabilitation Joint Action Committee Meeting and announced that Ops Gading will be changed to Ops Lestari. The government will be implementing numerous strategies to ensure the wellbeing of small farmers, minorities, as well as environment protection.
The new government is aware of the agricultural problems in Cameron Highlands, such as pollution and foreign labor shortage, which are all originated from various flaws in agricultural policies over many years. Therefore, the new operation will urge the State Government and the District and Land Office to speed up their effort of solving the TOL (Temporary Operating License) issue.
Many farmers who have TOLs are always troubled by the fact that their TOLs are not allowed to be renewed on time, thus rendering their TOLs “expired and illegal”. Besides that, they are facing inconvenience in applying for foreign workers and road tax for vegetable vehicles, and are therefore always worried about the next enforcement operations by the authorities.
These problems occur as the District and Land Office lacks the necessary manpower to handle the application process. Meanwhile the power to renew TOLs falls under the hands of Menteri Besar. Hence, relevant documents have to be delivered to the for approval before sending back to Land Office in Cameron Highlands for the remaining procedures.
Although Cameron Highlands is reputed as the largest producer of vegetables, fruits and flowers in Peninsular Malaysia, its agricultural development had beenunfortunately abandoned and severely delayed by the BN government. Among all, the issue of agricultural land hadalways been one of the greatest worries for farmers as their future was uncertain.
We welcomed the new government’s efforts of solving pollution and illegal opening of land by utilisingthe current platforms, namely state level, district level and NGOs (such as Small Farmers Association).
We are looking forward to continuous communication and negotiations between the new government and various parties in order to draft a sustainable agriculture development blueprint that is visionary and forward-looking, as well as to introduce land use policies that are legal, logical, reasonable.
These initiatives will ensure that every act is conducted within the framework of openness, transparency and accountability, which will in turn propelling Cameron Highlands to become an area that embraces modernization and sustainable development.