Sarawak Report Reveals Another Land Grab by Taib Mahmud

Kuching
Sunday, 5th December 2010

Sarawak Report has been piecing together documentation that enables us to prove for the first time that the Chief Minister has conducted land thefts on a massive scale from the people of Sarawak. Using a number of sources, many of which Taib has shamefully attempted to keep secret, we are now unravelling detailed information showing the full extent of his seizures of Native Customary Rights Lands for himself and his family and also the extraordinary profits he has made at the expense of his people.

The corruption has been so extensive and the affects have been so devastating to so many Dayak communities and to the environment of Sarawak, that we are unable to cover this issue in just one article. Instead we will be examining our evidence over coming weeks and bringing you the results in a series of reports, which will look at the impact of Taib’s destructive greed on communities the length and breadth of the state.

Clear pattern emerges under ‘Thief’ Minister

Yet, already we can point to a clear pattern of activity or ’modus operandi’, through which Taib has abused his power by helping himself and his family to Dayak lands. In his joint role as Resources and Planning Minister the Chief Minister pushes a policy of ’alienating’ Native Customary Rights (NCR)Lands in the name of ’development’, a practice which was recently ruled illegal by the Federal High Court.

However, he has always worked hard to keep the private benefactors of this public policy hidden! The identity ofthe companies originally handed parcels of Dayak land by the state authorities and also the sums they have been charged ought to be public information, but they have always been treated as a top state secret, marked confidential in the Land Registry!

Sarawak Report can now confirm the perhaps unsurprising truth that very many of these companies directly belong to Taib’s family, or indeed himself, or to people he owes political or business favours . Our evidence also details how the standard practice is for the Chief Minister to hand over great parcels of land to companies owned by his siblings for rock bottom prices (or nothing at all) who in turn sell on these companies as quickly as possible (usually in a matter of days) to a crony business partner for a massive profit.

The Taib family member then often cements the deal by taking up shares or directorships in the new parent company (often under a proxy or hidden identity) so that they can continue to enjoy the profits of developing the land, but in a less obvious capacity. This ‘development’ almost invariably consists of stripping the area of its valuable timber and then planting palm oil plantations, leaving the destitute Dayakcommunities with nothing but very low paid jobs and usually laughable levels of compensation.

One shocking case in point

Sarawak Report has established that this scandalous activity has taken place in one of the most controversial current land grabs being sponsored by the State of Sarawak. The very poor Melanau population of Pulau Bruit near Sibu are one of the many communities to have suffered from this form of ‘development’, even though they are from the Chief Minister’s own race. The island till recently was a precious remaining area of fast disappearing lowland mangrove forest with a National Park of protected land. In 2004 the Chief Minister saw fit to ‘develop’ the area for yet more palm plantations, despite the growing international outcry over the destruction of Sarawak by palm plantations.

Therefore in May 2004 10,000 hectares of the island was handed to a company Eastern Eden Sdn Bhd and a further 5,000 to a company Poh Zhen. Of course the natives knew nothing of such decisions over their land until the palm plantation company came and started stripping the area of its pristine mangrove forests the following year and planting oil palm in its place. The company offered the locals just RM120 ringgit per hectare for their land - a total of just over a million ringgit to be shared by the entire community for all their native lands.

Encik Bahrum, one of the headmen, explains how he learnt about the development when he went to the jungle one day for forage for fish and food. A short way in he discovered that a vast area had been flattened. Bahrum, whose people have always lived in the area, said that the plantation company at first promised the locals that they were stripping the area to grow padi fields for the population, but in fact their whole region has been covered in oil palm. NGOs have told Sarawak Report that protesters have complained of harassment and arrest and many have ended taking the compensation feeling they have no choice.

Suffering of the people

Bahrum says that his people are now desperately short of food, because the forest and fish have gone. They are also suffering polluted waters as a result of pesticides andfertilisers on the plantation. Few have received jobs. The ‘development’ is now spreading across the island and extending into Iban territories affecting 8 communities at Sungai Lengan. The NGO Sadia has alerted the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil that the logging also appears to be encroaching illegally into the National Park area on the island. The Ibans say that already their health and food supplies have been affected by the pollution of their waters by chemicals and that fish are dying and children are falling sick. No compensation has been offered to the Ibans.

Sadia and the law firm belonging to PKR opposition leader Baru Bian are now supporting the natives in a court case to protect their remaining lands and sue for proper compensation. But there will be little surprise that the community say they have had no such support from their local representative to the Federal Parliament Norah Binti Abdul Rahman. She also the Chief Executive of the Tanjun Manis ‘development’ project that is driving the destruction of the entire area and she happens to be the niece of Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud.

Norah and Taibtreated themselves in the summer to a state-funded visit to Oxford University in the UK (along with two plane loads of publicly funded officials) in order to promote their business projects in the region at notorious event hosted by the University’s Said Business School. Norah is seeking international funding for further logging and devastation in order to develop a ‘Halal food Hub’ in Malaysia’s Christian state.

Even less surprising has been Nora’s sudden recent announcement that a large sum of money is about to be spent on an infrastructure programme to bring roads, electricity and water to the people who have till now been totally neglected in the ‘development’ of their region and who have suffered the loss of their forest lands and fishing grounds. She is of course now looking for their support in the upcoming election, but whether the promises will be remembered after the election is over is another matter. Local people are advised to ignore the 60 ringgit bribes she will also offer and to continue to ignore her even if she ups the bribe money! It is their right to receive Norah’s bribe money and to vote for another party entirely.

We expose who really profits

This is because perhaps the most shocking aspect of this story is the part that has until now been kept most hidden. Our investigations have revealed just how much money Norah’s family has taken from the natives of Pulau Bruit. When the locals had sought the owners of the palm plantations who had been handed their land by Taib’s decision as Chief Minister and Planning and Resources Minister they learnt that the companies, Eastern Eden and Poh Zhen, belonged to Jaya Tiasa a subsidiary company of the vast timber company Ribunan Hijau, run by a key crony of the Chief Minister. Therefore, their representatives have been making their protests to this company.

However, Sarawak Report can now reveal that the original owners of these companies were Taib’s own brothers Arip and Ali Mahmud. They received the land grants from the government on 19th May 2004 paying RM 6 million for Eastern Eden plot of 10,000 hectares and RM 3 million for the Poh Zhen plot of 5,000 hectares. However, in just 12 days on 31st May they had sold on the companies to their crony tycoon Ribunan Hijau/Jaya Tiasa chief Tiong Choong for RM 33 million and RM 16 million! This represents a RM 40 million clean profit for the Taib family in a matter of 12 days!

Further, true to the pattern we have identified, the Aripfamily have continued to enjoy profitable ties with the company they sold out to. Sarawak Report has identified a large chunk of Jaya Tiasa shares continue to belong to the Arip family (he died in 2005). These shares were clearly handed to the family as an added ‘sweetner’ for the deal. This means that the Mahmud family continues to reap big profits from the palm oil plantations and the timber extraction from the lands that were stolen from the local communities on top of the fat profit they made from selling on land that Taib had handed to them well below market price.

More

Sarawak Report will be following the fortunes of the impoverished islanders of Palau Bruit as they campaign to save the little remaining area of their lands and to receive compensation. However, their tragic case is just one of hundreds of land grabs by the Chief Minister and his family across the State. We will be unveiling more about these outrages and the effect on the people of Sarawak in later reports.

This article is taken from Sarawak Report and republish in Bukittunggal for the benefit of all Sarawakian

Mupok Aku

Perikatan UMNO-MCA, Konvensyen Nasional dan Tuntutan Pilihanraya Persekutuan 1955

Kuching
Friday, 3rd Dec 2010

(Google Picture)

This paper outlines the cooperation between UMNO and MCA during the 1955 General Election in Malaya. Article written in Malay, by by Prof Madya Dr Oong Hak Ching from Pusat Pengajian Sejarah, Politik dan Strategi of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Perikatan dan Konvensyen Nasional Sejak Perikatan UMNO-MCA memenangi pilihanraya Majlis Perbandaran Kuala Lumpur dalam tahun 1952 pemimpin-pemimpin politik UMNO terutama Tunku Abdul Rahman meneruskan perjuangan untuk mendapat kemajuan poltik yang lebih besar dan mengharapkan kerajaan British mengambil langkah-langkah untuk mengadakan pilihanraya di peringkat Persekutuan bagi membolehkan penglibatan yang lebih masyarakat Tanah Melayu dalam pemilihan wakil mereka ke Majlis Perundangan Persekutuan dan seterusnya mencapai kemerdekaan. 

Keanggotan Majlis Perundangan Persekutuan cuma terbuka kepada wakil-wakil yang dilantik oleh Pesuruhjaya Tinggi British yang dianggap mewakili pertubuhan-pertubuhan politik, sosial dan perniagaan dan perusahaan, kesatuan sekerja dan lain-lain golongan berkepentingan. Dalam perjuangan untuk mendapatkan kemerdekaan Tunku mengharapkan sokongan masyarakat Cina yang diwakili oleh MCA.

Melalui surat-suratnya kepada pemimpin-pemimpin MCA, Tunku Abdul Rahman memperlihatkan kesediaannya memberi konsesi politik yang lebih luas kepada masyarakat Cina (Oong Hak Ching, 2000).

Hasil perbincangan ini mereka bersetuju untuk mengadakan majlis pertemuan tidak formal pada 3 Februari 1953 di pejabat Persatuan Pelombong Cina Selangor (Selangor Chinese Miners’ Association) di Foch Avenue Kuala Lumpur. Lima wakil daripada UMNO terdiri dari Tunku Abdul Rahman, Inche Sardon Jubir, Inche S A Bahaman, Dr. Ismail Rahman dan Syed Nasir bin Ismail. Wakil-wakil MCA pula ialah Dato Sir Cheng-lock Tan (Tan Cheng Lock), Col. H.S.Lee, Mr. Leong Yew Koh, Mr.S.M. Yong dan Mr. Ong Yock Lin. T. H. Tan, Ketua Setiausaha Eksekutif MCA bertindak sebagai Setiausaha majlis mesyuarat tidak formal ini. Para hadirin bersetuju Tan Cheng Lock menjadi pengerusi mesyuarat ini dan Tunku pula akan mempengerusi mesyuarat akan datang dan seterusnya kedua-dua tokoh ini akan bergilir-gilir mempengerusikan mesyuarat UMNO-MCA. Tan Cheng Lock memaklumkan kepada majlis tujuan mesyuarat ini diadakan bagi menentukan agenda bagi persidangan mejabulat UMNO-MCA..

Sebelum membincangkan lebih lanjut agenda mesyuarat tersebut Tan Cheng Lock memberi penjelasan mengenai usaha-usaha MCA untuk membantu mengatasi masalah ekonomi masyarakat Melayu dan mengingatkan hadirin bahawa orang Cina bukan lah punca yang menyebabkan masalah ekonomi masyarakat Melayu. Yang harus dipersalahkan ada lah kerajaan British yang memberikan pendidikan hanya untuk membolehkan orang Melayu menjadi budak pejabat dan kerani. MCA sendiri telah menyediakan peruntukan berjumlah $500,000.00 bagi membantu masyarakat Melayu.

Menurut Tan Cheng Lock : 

‘… it was important… to redress the economic unbalance of the Malays. The Chinese should share their business experiance with the Malays. What harm could this do ? Malaya would be richer if there could be 20 Malay millionaires ; the more rich the Malays the country had, the better for the Malay and for the country. (SSP HSLee , Minit Mesyuarat)

Perlu dijelaskan di sini bahawa isu ini telah banyak diperkatakan dalam mesyuarat Jawatankuasa hubungan Kaum yang diadakan sejak 1949. Pada masa itu UMNO diwakili oleh Dato Onn Jafaar. Tetapi dalam mesyuarat ini UMNO diwakili oleh Tunku dan pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO yang belum pernah berbincang dengan MCA.

Cakap-cakap pemimpin MCA memang memberi kesan kepada Tunku Abdul Rahman yang menyatakan 

‘ …the myth of Chinese economic domination of Malaya had already been exploded. ‘ Tunku juga bersetuju masalah ekonomi orang Melayu berpunca daripada penjajahan British dan menyatakan ‘ For to long the Malays had been content to play the part of ‘ scramblers after the crums’. Today the Malays did not want to play that part any longer…’ Tunku berpendapat … there could never be any true understanding between the Malays and the other races because of the British policy of Divide- and- Rule» ‘ Tunku mengalu-alukan kerjasama UMNO-MCA. Menurut Tunku : ‘With the guidance of God, with the help of Col Lee, MR. S.M Yong, Mr. Ong Yoke Lin and few other , the UMNO-MCA alliance was started. It began first in Kuala Lumpur, and since spread to Johore and Malacca with very good result in the local elections.

…this alliance should be forged ahead wherever there were to be elections’ (SSP HSLee, minit mesyuarat)

Tan Cheng Lock bersetuju bahawa agenda untuk perbincangan dalam persidangan Meja-bulat UMNO-MCA ada lah mengenai kemerdekaan. Tetapi sebelum perkara ini dibincangkan UMNO-MCA perlu « … that the Malays and Chinese who together formed 90 percent of the population, must get together and stand on a common platform of understanding and co-operation. » H.S. Lee menambah bahawa ‘ …. That UMNO and MCA should be practical and think out ways and means to achieve the goal of selfgovernment’.

Mesyuarat tidak formal ini membuat tiga ketetapan : 

Jawatankuasa Perhubungan UMNO-MCA ditubuhkan di seleruh negeri ;Tahun 1954 sebagai tarikh pelaksaan prinsip-prinsip menentu kelayakan menjadi pengundi Pilihanraya Persekutuan ; dan pembentukan jawatankuasa kecil untuk merangka deraf peratoran pilihanraya Persekutuan. Jawatankuasa ini terdiri dari Dr Ismail, Sardon Jubir, S.M Yong dan H.S.Lee. 

Sebagai langkah susulan mesyuarat tidak formal yang kedua diadakan pada 21 Februari 1953 di Singapura. Mesyuarat ini dipengerusikan oleh Tunku Abdullah Rahman. UMNO diwakili oleh Inche Sardon Jubir, Syed Nasir, Dr Ismail Rahman bin Mohd. Hashim. MCA pula diwakili oleh Tan Cheng Lock, H. S.Lee, Ong Yoke Lin dan T.H.Tan. 

Tunku memaklum kepada mesyuarat bahawa ketetapan yang dibuat oleh mesyuarat bersama UMNO-MCA tidak mengikut UMNO mahupun MCA. Keputusan mesyuarat Cuma dijadikan sebagai cadangan yang akan dikemukakan kepada pertubuhan masing-masing dan bergantung kepada jawatankuasa eksekutif UMNO atau MCA hendak menerima atau tidak. 

Dalam mesyuarat ini lah buat kali pertama Tunku mengemukakan cadangan supaya dianjorkan kongres kebangsaan yang kemudian dikenali sebagai konvesyen nasional. Menurut Tunku 

“…in view of the interest envinced in the deliberations of the Joint Committee and as a counter to suspicion and sabotage through the propaganda of thoses who did not want to see the Chinese and Malays uniting, UMNO and MCA should sponsor a sort of national congress to which other bodies, like IMP , Labour, etc., should be invited to participate in the discussions.

Menurut co 1022/151, “The original idea of holding some form of national conference or congress probably derived from the resolutions of the Asian Socialist Conference in Rangoon dan ida ini dibawa pula oleh Mohamed Sopiee.

Cadangan Tunku hanya mendapat sokongan daripada Sardon Jubir. Tan Cheng  Lock dan H.S Lee tidak bersetuju dengan cadangan ini buat sementara waktu. Menurut Tan Cheng Lock

 “…such a congress should have a very limited agenda’ dan ia meningatkan mengenai “…the danger of convening such a congress without the Chinese and the Malays first agreeing absolutely on each principle to be put before the congress, otherwise there would be a serious split and the British would make capital of it by citing it as another example that the people of this country could not agree with one another.”

 H. S. Lee bersetuju dengan pandangan Tan Cheng Lock dan menyatakan “…such congress would be the eventual result of the deliberations of the Joint Committee dan dengan tegas menyatakan “ We cannot have it now” Manakala Ong Yong Lin pula menyatakan orang India yang mempunyai kesedaran politik yang kuat mungkin akan menimbulkan kekacaauan dalam congress berkenaan dan juga kongres tersebut akan menimbulkan “ serious differences of opinion and dissension. Dr Ismail pula menyatakan kebimbangan mengnai “ what would be the position of the Joint Committee once such a Congress was convened.” Mesyuarat akhir memutuskan bahawa cadangan mengadakan kongres ditunda hingga UMNO dan MCA dapat mencapai kata sepakat mengenai prinsip-prinsip asas yang melibatkan kepentingan kaum masing-masing terutama dalam soal kelayakan menjadi pengundi.

Mesyuarat tidak formal UMNO-MCA yang ketiga diadakan pada 8 Mac 1953 di Johor Baharu. Mesyuarat ini dipengerusi oleh Tan Cheng Lock dengan dihadiri oleh wakil-wakil UMNO kecuali Syed Nasir dan S. A. Bahaman dan wakil-wakil MCA termasuk Leong Yew Koh.

H.S.Lee melaporkan bahawa deraf cadangan mengenai Peratoran-peratoran Pilihanraya Persekutuan masih belum dapat disiapkan dan berjanji akan disiapkan sebelum ia ke England pada 18 Mac. Tunku menekankan peri mustahak deraf berkenaan disiapkan kerana ia akan mengemukakan kepada Perhimpunan Agong UMNO yang akan berlangsung pada awal April.

Tunku Abdul Rahman membangkitkan kembali mengenai isu mengandakan kongres kebangsaan. Tunku menyebutkan bahawa akbar membuat komen berhubung dengan pertemuan tidak formal UMNO-MCA dan ia dituduh menjual hak-hak orang Melayu kepada orang Cina. Tunku berpendapat kongres harus diadakan secepat mungkin bagi membersihkan namanya. Tunku memaklumkan bahawa Inche Mohamed Sopiee yang menjadi Pengerusi Parti Buruh Se Malaya (Pan-Malayan Labour Party ) dan juga pegawai perhubungan UMNO Pulau Pinang dan Seberang Perai bermint untuk menganjurkan kongres.

Cadangan Tunku telah ditolak oleh mesyuarat. H. S.Lee sekali lagi tidak bersetuju dengan menyatakan:

“…surely a Congress would of no use until the UMNO General Assembly and the M.C.A. Working Committee had first approved the Federal Election proposals.” 

Dr Ismail pula mencadangkan agar mereka cuba mendapatkan sokongan akbar bagi menggelakkan komen-komen buruk ditimbulkan mengenai perbincangan tidak formal UMNO-MCA dan juga mereka sendiri menerbitkan akhbar. 

Tan Cheng Lock menyokong pandang Dr Ismail dan mencadangkan T. H. Tan yang juga merupakan bekas wartawan Singapore Standard dapat memberi nasihat kepada akhbar berkenaan. Tan Cheng Lock sendiri akan berbincang dengan Aw Boon Haw pemilik akhbar berkenaan.

Harapan Tunku sebagai mewakili golongan moderate untuk menganjorkan kongres kebangsaan yang pertama yang menggabungkan Melayu dan bukan Melayu telah hancur kerana beberapa penyokong kuat Dato Onn dan pemimpin-pemimpin IMP dan Menteri-menteri Besar telah pun membuat persiapan bagi menganjurkan kongres kebangsaan.

Dato Panglima Gantang bersama-sama dengan Menteri Besar Kelantan , Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Johor, Terangganu dan Selangor dan beberapa pemimpin lain telah mengumumkan mereka akan menganjorkan satu persidangan di Kuala Lumpur pada 27 April 1953 dengan tujuan menghimpunkan

"all those leaders who strive sincerely for a united, free and independence Malayan nation …to consider how they can best in co-operation forward their splend ideal." 

Presiden UMNO menerima pelawaan daripada Dato Panglima Bukit Gantang untuk menghantar dua orang wakil menyertai persidangan ini.(SSPSHLee, Minit Msyuarat tidak formal UMNO-MCA, 2 April 1953).

Dalam mesyuarat tidak formal yang kelima yang diadakan pada 2 April di Melaka pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO-MCA telah membincang dengan panjang lebar mengenai Nasional Konferens dan pelawan yang mereka terima untuk turut serta dalam persidangan berkenaan. Surat pelawaan kepada Presiden UMNO itu menyatakan

“ My colleague and I extend a cordial invitation to the United Malays National Organisation and very much hope that your organization will be able to accept this invitation to participate in the conference and nominate two representative to attend.” Seterusnya surat itu menyatakan : “We hope and believe that the conference will be widely representative of Malayan leaders of all races, and that it will make a valuable contribution to inter-communal harmony and national unity.”

Persidangan Kebangsaan bertujuan untk “…consider all matters discussed at the conference and make  recommendations at this conference at its meeting as to the steps that should be taken to build a united self-governing Malaya nation.”

Tan Cheng Lock berpendapat bahawa tujuan asas persidangan itu ada lah “ to form a Working Committee dominated by the Mentris Besar.” Daripada maklumat yang diterima oleh Lau Pak Khuan Menteri Besar Perak bercadang untuk membentuk Persatuan Kebangsaan Perak dan sesiapa yang enggan menjadi ahli akan dianggap menderhaka kepada Perak. Tunku tidak menolak kemungkinan menerima jemputan berkenaan dengan syarat mereka diberikan perwakilan yang mencukupi sesuai kedudukan mereka sebagai pertubuhan terbesar.

Tan Cheng Lock juga bersetuju supaya UMNO dan MCA menyertai persidangan berkenaan untuk menunjukkan yang “we are reasonable.” Tetapi Leong Yew membantah dengan menyatakan “ UMNO and MCA should not allow their action to be influence by the sponsors of the National Conference.” Dato Razak juga tidak bersetuju , bahkan menyatakan “…the Mentris Besar should not be in the conference at all.” Setelah berbincang begitu panjang lebar Tunku membuat andaian bahawa “The National Conference was intended to forestall the National Congress.” Mereka bersetuju jawapan yang akan dihantar kepada Dato’

Paglima Gantang antara lain menyatakan UMNO dan MCA bersimpati dengan dengan matlamat asas pihak penganjor dan UMNO-MCA akan “redouble the efforts of the Malay and Chinese communities in Malaya…to create in this country a society where people enjoy peace and freedom, prosperity and happiness.” (SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat)

Mesyuarat ini menyatakan cadangan Nasional Konferens dan Jawatankuasa yang akan dibentuk akan didominasi oleh pegawai tinggi pentadbiran kerajaan dan individuindividu yang tidak mewakili mana kelompok penduduk .UMNO-MCA berpendapat “ the desire for a united Malayan Nation and self-government for Malaya must spring from the people.” UMNO dan MCA berpendapat persidangan ini tidak membayangkan kehendak yang sebenar penduduk-penduduk di wilayah ini dan tidak mempunyai kewibawaan yang mencukupi berasas prinsip-prinsip demokrasi untuk meletakka asasasas bagi pembinaan “ a united self-governing Malayan nation.” (SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat).

Berikutan dengan peristewa di atas telah mengadakan perbincangan tidak formal wakil-wakil persidangan meja-bulat Perikatan di Singapura pada 30 Mei 1953. UMNO diwakili oleh Tunku Abdul Rahman dan Dr Ismail Rahman. MCA pula diwakili oleh Tan Cheng Lock dan Leong Yew Koh. Parti Buru Se Malaya turut menghantar wakil ia itu Mohamed sopiee. T. H. Tan turut hadir sebagai Setiausaha mesyuarat. Tunku Abdul

Rahman menekankan peripenting cadangan Kongres Kebangsaan dengan menumpukan perhatian kepada satu atau dua perkara ia itu pilihanraya peringkat Persekutuan dan cadangan reform Majlisi Perundangan Persekutuan dan Majlis Eksekutif. Tetapi Mohamed Sopiee menekankan bahawa persidangan itu perlu menjaga kepentingan orang ramai. Menurutnya “Some programme for the benefit of the people should be mapped out for placing before the Congress. Mesyuarat ini membincangkan komposisi kongres dan pertubuhan-pertubuhan yang akan dijemput yang antara lain termasuk UMNO, MCA, PMU, pertubuhan-pertubuhan India saperti MIC, FIO, MIA, dan MBIA, Persatuan Orang Serani, Persekutuan Ceylon Tanah Melayu, SCBA dan juga IMP.

Objektif awal Kongress ini untuk membentuk National Congress Party of Malaya dan membolehkan pilihanraya umum diadakan pada tahun 1954 dan disusuli dengan reform Majlis Perundangan Persekutuan dan Majlis Eksekutif.

Persidangan meja-bulat ini mencadangkan 15 orang pemimpin dipilih untuk menganjur kongres kebangsaan. Mereka terdiri dari Tunku Abdul Rahman, Dr Ismail Rahman, Inche Sardon Jubir, A. Bahaman, dan Dr Suleiman Rahman dari UMNO; Dato Sir Cheng-lock Tan, Leong Yew Koh, Col. H.S.Lee, Ong Yoke Lin dan S.M. Yong dari MCA dan Mohamed Sopiee, Wong Pak Choy, M. Arokiasamy, Mohamed Khir Johari

dan Lee Moke Seng dari PMLP (Buruh).Persidangan ini juga telah melantik Pro-tem Sekretariat yang terdiri dari T. H. Tan, Inche Asnall bin Hadi dan Yap Choong Koon.

Persidangan meja-bulat Perikatan juga telah merangka sebuah manifesto yang akan dikemukakan dalam Kongres Kebangsaan Malaya yang kemudian dikenali sebagai Nasional Konvensyen yang akan dijangka diadakan pada 1 Julai 1953. Yang menariknya manifesto ini membayangkan hasrat UMNO, MCA dan PLMP untuk menubuhkan sebuah parti tidak perkauman yang namanya dicadangkan People Congress Party atau National Congress Party of Malaya. Manifesto ini antara lain menyebutkan bahawa

“We people of Malaya, as represented by our political organizations, determined to establish in strength and unity INDEPENDENT STATE in which the sovereignty of the sultans as constitutional Rulers of their respective territories be maintained, to establish social order on the basis of the eternal principles of JUSTICE, LIBERTY and UNITY…

Perikatan juga menekankan prinsip “Equality of citizenship rights, privileges and duties.” (SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat) Perikatan juga bersetuju taboran calon untuk pilihanraya dengan berkadar Melayu:8, Cina:6, Buruh:4, India:2 dan lain-lain:1. Berasaskan kadar ini UMNO kelihatan begitu generous terhadap masyarakat bukan Melayu. Tetapi kadar ini dikaji semula berikutan Parti Buruh menarik diri dan calon Melayu daripada UMNO dalam Pilihanraya Persekutuan 1955 juga lebih banyak daripada yang dijangkakan.

Manifesto ini juga menyatakan Bahasa Melayu akan menjadi bahasa rasmi bersam-sama bahasa Inggeris dan perkembangan kebudayaan berbangai bangsa akan digalakkan. Tiada halangan dari pemakaian bahasa Cina dan bahasa Tamil sebagai bahasa pengantar di sekolah-sekolah kebangsaan yang akan ditubuhkan. Di sekolah-sekolah yang menggunakan bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa pengantar, bahasa Inggeris perlu diajar sebagai mata pelajaran wajib. Di Sekolah berbahasa pengantar Cina atau Tamil, bahasa Melayu dan Inggeris menjadi mata pelajaran wajib.

Pada 19 Jun 1953 satu mesyuarat wakil-wakil UMNO, MCA dan PMLP telah diadakan di Hotel Majestic Kuala Lumpur untuk meneruskan perbincangan mengenai rancangan mengadakan Kongres Kebangsaan. Wakil-wakil UMNO terdiri dari Tunku Abdul Rahman, Dr Ismail Rahman, Sardon Jubir dan Suleiman. Wakil-wakil MCA terdiri dari Tan Cheng Lock, Leong Yew Koh, Leung Cheung Ling yang mengantikan

H.S.Lee dan Ong Yoke Lin. Wakil-waakil PMLP pula terdiri Mohamed Sopiee, Wong Pak Choy, A.Arokiasamy, John Emanuel dan K.C.Chia. Turut hadir T,H. Tan, Hasnul bin Abd. Hadi , Lee Moke Seng dan . Syed Jaafar Albar juga turut hadir. 

Mesyuarat ini  dipengerusikan oleh Tunku. Sardon melaporkan bahawa Perhimpunan Agung telah memberi kelulusan kepada cadangan menganjurkan kongres. PLMP juga tidak ada masalah untuk turut menganjurkan kongres ini. Tetapi Jawatankuasa Kerja MCA masih dalam peringkat mempertimbangkan buruk baiknya kepada orang ramai dengan mengadakan kongres ini.
Sebelum perbincangan lanjut Tunku mencadangkan kongres nanti menerima empat perkara:

(1) That in order to serve its purposes, this country must have independence and intends to get it by peaceful and constitutional means;

(2) That we shall maintain all that is good in, and for the country; 

(3) That general elections be held in 1954 as a first step towards independence;

(4) After the general elections, the nxt step will be to plan what we should do when we get power. Whaever plans proposed should be for the benefit of all the people of the country and not a section of them. (SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat)

Tunku dengan tegas menyatakan “…the greatest menace would be class war and this should be avoided at all costs.” (SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat)

Dr Ismail pula membangkitkan kenyatan Parti Buruh yang boleh menimbulkan salah faham dan menjejaskan kedudukan kongres kelak. Kenyataan itu menyebutkan kemungkinan kerajaan British tidak semata-mata mengiktiraf kongres sebagai wakil tunggal pertubuhan kebangsaan. British mungkin memberi pengiktiran juga kepada Persidangan Kebangsaan yang ditaja oleh Menteri-menteri sebagai wakil pertubuhan kebangsaan. Kerajaan British akan berunding dengan kongres dan juga persidangan dalam isu yang berkaitan dengan kemedekaan. Untuk kepentingan orang ramai pihak kongres harus cuba menggelakan dari mengambil tindakan yang boleh mencetuskan kontrovesi atan memutuskan hubungan sehingga berpatah arang dengan Persidangan Kebangsaan. Pada pandangan Parti Buruh pihak Persidangan Kebangsaan mungkin juga dapat memberi sokongan sejauh mungkin dalam soal kerjasama di antara kedua-dua pihak. Dr Ismail menyatakan Parti Buruh harus membuat pilihan untuk menyertai Persidangan kebangsaan atau Kongres Kebangsaan. Tan Cheng Lock meminta mesyuarat menumpukan perhatian kepada “ the main points of its business” ia itu pilihanraya umum dan kemerdekaan. 

Mohamed Sopiee, Suleiman Rahman dan S.M.Yong diminta merangka deraf ketetapan mesyuarat yang mengandungi kenyataan bahawa:

There shall forthwith be formed a National Congress of Malaya comprising democratic Malayan Political Organisation for the attainment by peaceful and constitutional means, of a sovereign and independence State of Malaya within the Commonwealth to:

(a) establish, protect and uphold the principles of full responsible representative Government of the people, for the people, by the people:

(b) safeguarde the position of the Rulers of the Malay States as constitutional heads:

(c) adopt, enforce and uphold the fundamental principles of Human rights laid down by the United Nations Organisation:

(d) establish, protect and uphold of worship, thought and expression, and of Association:

(e) consider and reconcile the conflicting claims of the various communities and groups and to protect the rights of the minorities. (SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat)

Ketetapan ini juga menyebutkan bahawa pilihanraya Persekutuan harus diadakan pada 1954 sebagai langkah pertama kearah pencapaian kemerdekaan dan kedaulatan Malaya. Perikatan UMNO-MCA menghadapi banyak masalah untuk menganjorkan Kongress kebangsaan termasuk perselisihan faham di antara MCA dengan pemimpin-pemimpin Parti Buruh yang menyebabkan parti ini menarik diri daripada menjadi

penganjur. Mesyuarat Perikatan UMNO-MCA yang di adakan di Johor Baru pada 10 Julai 1953 tidak disertai oleh wakil-wakil Parti Buruh. MCA Cuma menghantar dua wakil: Tan Cheng Lock dan Ong Yoke Lin. T. H.Tan turut hadir sebagai pemerhati.

UMNO pula menghantar enam orang wakil termasuk muka baru Mohd Yasin Abdul Rahman. Mesyuarat ini dipengerusi oleh Tan Cheng Lock. Mesyuarat dimaklumkan bahawa Mohamed Sopiee telah memberi ucapan dalam mesyuarat Pemuda UMNO di Pulau Pinang yang dianggap cuba menimbulkan perselesihan faham di antara MCA dengan UMNO. Ucapan ini dilaporkan dalam akhbar Melayu Raya pada 28 Jun 1953 yang antara lain menyatakan jika mereka dipaksa memilih di antara dua kuasa: Imperialis British atau kapitalis, maka lebih baik mereka mengikut kerajaan British. Tetapi jika tiada pilihan ada lah menjadi tanggung jawab

mereka untuk menypokong rakyat bagi memperoleh kemerdekaan. Menurut Mohamed Sopiee PMLP menyokong perjuangan UMNO tetapi tidak boleh berkerjasama dengan MCA yang keiklasan boleh diragukan. Mohamed Sopiee mengemukakan pertanyaan kepada hadirin “Do you think the MCA wants independence?” (SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat)

Tindakan Mohamed sopiee ini dilakukan kerana MCA tidak menampakan kesungguhan bagi mendapat mandat dari anggota-anggotanya untuk menganjurkan Kongres Kebangsaan. Berikutan dengan kekecohan yang ditimbulkan ini PMLP mengambil keputusan menarik diri daripada menjadi anggota penganjur Kongres

Kebangsaan. Lee Moke Sang, Setiausaha Agung PMLP dalam suratnya kepada Tunku Abdul Rahman memaklumkan hal ini tetapi menyokong usaha pembentukan Malayan Peoples Congress untuk memperjuangkan kemerdekaan dan mereka akan turut hadir jika dijemput. Tindakan Mohamed Sopiee akhirnya memberi kesan positif. 

MCA kemudiannya tidak lagi berbelah bahagi menyokong Kongres Kebangsaan. Mesyuarat Perikatan UMNO-MCA ini mengambil keputusan untuk menunda tarikh mengadakan Kongres Kebangsaan kepada 15 dan 16 Ogos 1953 dengan alasan MCA sedang menjalankan pungutan suara dari ahli-ahlinya mengenai kongres ini. Tarikh ini ditunda lagi memandangkan Perikatan UMNO-MCA masih tidak dapat menyelesaikan beberapa masalah teknikal seperti bilangan pertubuhan dan perwakilan yang akan dijemput dan juga menunggu respons daripada pertubuhan-pertubuhan yang berkenaan. Pada 17 Ogos 1953 Perikatan mengadakan mesyuarat di Kelab Pelombong-pelombong Cina Selangor, Kuala Lumpur untuk membincangkan persiapan terakhir.

UMNO diwakili oleh Tunku Abdul Rahman, Dato Razak, Dr Ismail bin a. rahman dan Aziz bin Ishak. MCA pula diwakili oleh Col. H. S. Lee, Ong Yoke Lin dan Leung Cheung Ling. T.H. Tan juga turut hadir.

Tunku melaporkan kepada mesyuarat bahawa pertubuhan-pertubuhan politik Melayu telah menganjurkan Persidangan Politik Melayu (Malay Political Conference) di Johor baharu. Pertubuhan politik Melayu turut hadir melainkan Persatuan Kebangsaan Perak. Menurut Tunku “ It was a very successful meeting.” Tunku menjelaskan bahawa Persidangan Politik Melayu berkenaan bertujuan untuk membincangkan “…the basis

representation at the National Convention.” Beberapa wakil menyatakan perasaan tidak puas hati mereka dengan saiz perwakilan dari Masyarakat Melayu yang dianggap kecil berbanding dengan bilangan penduduk Melayu. Dr. Ismail meminta penjelasan mengapa ada pertubuhan-pertubuhan Melayu yang besar tidak dijemput. Ia juga memberi cadangan jika kemerdekaan tidak boleh diperolehi dengan cara pilihanraya, mereka boleh mendapatkannya dengan mengadakan rundingan dengan kerajaan British. Tunku tidak bersetuju dan berpendapat mereka terpaksa menunggu sampai hari Kiamat untuk mendapat kemerdekaan menerusi rundingan dengan kerajaan British.(SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat)

Col. H.S. Lee pula memberi laporan mengenai jemputan ke Konvesyen Nasional jawapan yang diterima daripada beberapa pertubuhan. PMLP tidak dapat membuat keputusan muktamad sehingga 21 Ogos. Kongres India Malaya (Malayan Indian Congress), Malayan-Born Indian Association , Malayan Indian Association dan Eurasian Union of Malaya menyatakan mereka tidak akan menyertai Nasional Konvesyen. Cuma Persatuan Melayu Semenanjung (Peninsula-Malays Union) pimpinan Hashim Ghani memberi jawapan yang positif. 

PMU akan menghantar Che Hashim Ghani dan Che Darus Ahmad sebagai perwakilan dan lima pemerhati terdiri dari Talib Ahmad, Abdul Majid bin Shaik Daud, Hashim Hamzah, Arshad Noordin, dan Ariffin Hussin.

Memandangkan sambutan dingin daripada pertubuhan-pertubuhan politik mesyuarat ini memutuskan Nasional Konvensyen dibuka kepada orang ramai.

Mesyuarat ini memutuskan Tunku Abdul Rahman akan dilantik sebagai Pengerusi Konvensyen ini. Tan Cheng Lock akan membuat cadangan dan Dato Razak akan memberi sokongan. Tan Cheng Lock akan menjadi Naib Pengerusi. T.H. Tan menjadi Setiausaha, Dato Razak sebagai ketua perwakilan UMNO dan Aziz Ishak

sebagai Penolong Setiausaha. Perikatan UMNO-MCA juga menyiapkan kertas cadangan mengenai “ Executive Council Constitution and Election Proposals” untuk dibentangkan dalam Nasional Konvensyen. Akhirnya Kongress Kebangsaan yang ditukar namanya kepada Konvesyen Nasional diadakan pada 23 Ogos 1953, kemudian pada 11 Oktober 1953 dan 14 Februari 1954. Perikatan UMNO-MCA menjemput 15 pertubuhan tetapi yang hadir cuma empat buah tidak termasuk Perikatan. Pertubuhan itu ialah PAS (Pan-

Malayan Islamic Party), PMU (Peninsular Malays Union ), KMU (the Kelantan Malay Union ) dan Parti Buruh Tanah Melayu (the Pan-Malayan Labour Party). 

Konvensyen Nasional mengeluarkan manifestonya yang antara lain menyatakan : "We the people of Malaya, as reprensented by our political organisations, determined to establish strenght and unity independent state ( in which the sovereignty of the sultans as constitutional Rulers of their respective territories shall be maintain) , social order on the basis of eternal principles of justice, liberty and unity…" (SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat).

Konvensyen ini juga meminta supaya Pilihanraya Persekutuan diadakan pada atau sebelum bulan November 1954. Nasional Konvensyen juga telah menerima ketetapanketetapan lain yang dibuat oleh Perikatan UMNO-MCA. 

Nasional Konvensyen telah menubuhkan sebuah jawatankuasa khas untuk “ …consider and recommend Constitutional Reforms in the Federation of Malaya” .Jawatankuasa ini mengandungi 10 ahli yang antaraa lain termasuk Tunku Abdul Rahman, Dr Ismail, H, S. .Lee , S.M. Yong, Ong Yoke, Mohd Daud bin Haji Salleh

(PMMK), Ahmad bin Abd. Rahim (PMU, Johor Baharu) dan lain-lain. Jawatankuasa ini telah membuat laporan yang akan dikemukakan kepada Pesuruhjaya Tinggi British di Tanah Melayu. Antara lain jawatankuasa ini berpendapat “…the time has arrived for elections to the Federal Legislature…as indicated by the fact that there is popular demad for such elections.” Pertubuhan-pertubuhan seperti PMLP, MIC, dan Parti Kebangsaan Perak juga menuntut supaya pilihanraya diadakan pada 1954. (SSP HSLee, Minit

mesyuarat)

Laporan ini mencadangankan supaya “franchise be liberalized at least for the first Federal elections.”  Kelayakan menjadi pengundi sebagaimana yang dicadangkan oleh jawatankuasa ini berasas prinsip-prinsip berikut:

(a) Subjects of the Rulers of the Malay States

(b) Federal Citizens;

(c) Any person born in any part of the Federation of Malaya and ordinarily resident in the Federation of Malaya for the last five years immediately preceding the elections;

(d) British subject born in Singapore and ordinarily resident in the Federation of Malaya for the last seven years immediately preceding the elections. (SSP HSLee, Minit mesyuarat)

Kerajaan British telah membentuk sebuah Jawatankuasa untuk mengkaji penyusunan semula Majlis Perundangan Persekutuan sebagai respon kepada desakan Perikatan dan pertubuhan-pertubuhan politik yang diwakili oleh Persidangan Kebangsaan dan Konvensyen Nasional. Jawatankuasa ini mengandungi 46 ahli yang kebanyakan mereka daripada pengikut Dato Onn dan wakil-wakil dalam Persidangan Kebangsaan

(National Conference ). Perikatan UMNO-MCA cuma diberi peluang menghantar tujuh wakil sahaja. Satu angka yang terlalu kecil bagi dua pertubuhan politik yang kuat dan besar ini.

Pada Januari 1954, Jawatankuasa Pilihanraya menghasilkan laporan yang menunjukkan mereka tidak dapat mencapai kata sepakat. Laporan Majoriti mencadangkan bahawa 48 dilantik dan 44 dipilih. Ini bermakna mereka mahu melambatkan proses membawa Tanah Melayu  kearah berkerajaan sendiri. Laporan Minoriti yang disokong oleh Perikatan mencadangkan 60 dipilih dan 40 dilantik.Perikatan mengemukakan cadangan majoriti ahli dipilih kerana mereka diduga akan memenangi Pilihan raya yang akan diadakan kelak.

Laporan Jawatankuasa Pilihanraya telah dikemukakan kepada Pesuruhjaya Tinggi dan Persidangan Raja-raja. Sebuah Kertas Putih (White Paper) telah diterbitkan mengandungi satu tolak ansur: Dewan Perundangan Persekutuan yang disusun semula akan mengandongi 98 ahli dengan 46 dilantik dan 52 dipilih. Perikatan tidak puashati dan menuntut supaya sekurang-kuranya 3/5 ahli Dewan Perundangan baru dipilih.Perikatan

mengambil keputusan menghantar delegasi ke London untuk membincangkan isu berkenaan dengan Setiausaha Negara Bagi Tanahjajahan. Wakil-wakil Perikataan terdiri daripada Tunku Abdul Rahman, Dato Razak dan T.H. Tan.

Melalui pertolongan Lord Ogmore, wakil-wakil Perikatan telah dapat menemui Setiausaha Bagi Negara. Perikatan mengatakan mereka tidak dapat menerima cadangan Kertas Putih kerana pihak yang menang dalam Pilihanraya tidak berupaya membentuk sebuah kerajaan yang kuat dan mereka boleh dipermain-mainkan oleh ahli-ahli yang dilantik.

Selain daripada kos mengadakan pilihanraya terlalu besar dan membebankan parti-parti yang bertanding. Rombongan Perikatan gagal mendapat sokong Setiausaha Negara Bagi tanah jajahan. Sekembali mereka ke Tanah Melayu mereka meneruskan tuntutan berkenaan. Templer bersetuju dengan beberapa cadangan Perikatan dan membayangkan kemungkinan beberapa ahli-ahli khas yang akan dilantik oleh Pesuruhjaya Tinggi diambil daripada mereka yang dicadangkan oleh pihak yang menang.

Pada 13 Jun 1954 Perikatan UMNO-MCA mengambil keputusan memboikot kerajaan dengan menarik ahli-ahli mereka yaang dilantk dalam badaan-badan kerajaan. Antara mereka yang meletak jawatan termasuklah H.S. Lee (Pengangkutan), Ismail (Sumber Alam) dan Tunku sendiri.

British berpendapat tindakan Perikatan tidak akan berkesan kerana kebanyakan ahli-ahli yang dilantik dalam Dewan Perundangan dan badan-badan kerajaan terdiri daripada penyokong Dato Onn dan Parti Negara yang mengantikan IMP.

Pada 24 Jun 1954, the Federation of Malaya Agreement (Amendment) Bill telah dibentangkan di Dewan Perundangan oleh Dato Onn selaku Ahli Ehwal dalam Negeri. 59 ahli-ahli Dewan yang hadir telah meluluskan Rang Undang-undang ini dengan sebulat suara. 16 ahli Perikatan UMNO-MCA memulaukan persidangan ini kerana mereka menyedari dengan kedudukan sebagai golongan minoriti yang begitu kecil mereka tidak

mempengarohi keputusan Dewan. Pindaan perlembagaan dilakukan mengikut cadangan Kertas Putih dan Pilihanraya akan diadakan pada Julai 1955.

Selepas kegagalannya Perikatan telah mengubah strategi perjuangan dengan cuba mendapat sokongan daripada Sultan-sultan. Pada 2 Julai 1954, mereka mengadakan perarakan yang dihadiri oleh seramai 2000 orang ke Johor Baharu untuk mengadap dan mengemukakan petisi yang antara lain meminta supaya dilantik sebuah jawatankuasa bagi mengkaji dan mengemukakan cadangan reformasi perlembagaan unuk Tanah

Melayu.

Strategi Perikatan berjaya memikat hati Sultan Johor yang kemudian mengadakan mesyuarat dengan sultan-sultan pada 22 dan 23 Ogos 1954. Persidangan Raja-raja Melayu yang diadakan 21 Oktober 1954 telah bersetuju dengan cadangan UMNO mengenai keperluan menyemak semula perlembagaan Tanah Melayu dan dicadangkan sebuah Jawatankuasa dilantik dengan ahli-ahli yang kebanyakannya bersimpati dengan

UMNO termasuk Dato Abdul Razak, Naib yang Di pertua UMNO.

Pesuruhjaya Tinggi juga bertolak ansor dengan Perikatan dengan memberi jaminan bahawa ia akan berunding dengan parti yang menang bagi menentukan lima daripada tujuh ahli khas ( seven reserved Nominated Members seats) dalam Dewan Perundangan. Ini bermakna parti yang menangi Pilihanraya Persekutuan nanti

mempunyai kesempatan menentukan penyokong mereka akan dilantik bagi lima kerusi khas berkenaan. Jaminan Pesuruhjaya Tinggi British ini telah diterima oleh Perikatan dan mereka telah menamatkan pemulauan atau boikot. Kejayaan ini menyebabkan Perikataan dianggap sebagai juara dalam perjuangan menuntut kemerdekaan dan kedudukan politik Dato Onn semakin pudar.

Jalan ke arah kemerdekaaan masih belum jelas. Pada Mac 1955 Sir Anthony Eden, Setiausaha Luar (the Foreign Secretary), menyatakan Darurat menjadi halangan bagi Biritain untuk membawa Tanah Melayu ke arah berkerajaan sendiri. Ini bermakna Perikatan harus berusaha menamatkan darurat walau pun dengan jalan berunding dan mendapat kerjasama dengan PKM.

Dalam Pilihanraya yang diadakan pada 27 Julai 1955, Perikatan meletakan 52 calon dengan 35 calon UMNO, 15 MCA dan 2 MIC. Pembahagian kerusi ini dibuat tidak berdasarkan bilangan pengundi mengikut kaum. Peratusan pengundi yang berdaftar dalam tahun 1955 dianggarkan 84 peratus Melayu, 11 peratus Cina dan 5 peratus India.

Cuma dua kawasan Pilihanraya yang mempunyai pengundi majoriti bukan Melayu. Ini bermakna Perikatan meletakkan 17 colan bukan Melayu bertanding di kawasan Melayu. Manifesto Pilihanraya Perikatan inginkan kemerdekaan dalam masa empat tahun, meneruskan dasar pendidikan yang akan menjadikan Bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa rasmi, memalayanisasi perkhidmatan awam, dan menawarkan pengampunan (general amnesty) kepada PKM bagi menamatkan Darurat.

Perikatan UMNO-MCA-MIC mendapat kemenangan besar dengan menawan 51 daripada 52 kerusi yang dipertandingkan. Perikatan mendapat lebih daripada 81 undi popular. Parti Negara di bawah pimpinan Dato Onn tidak memenangi seberang kerusi. Walaupun Dato Onn meniupkan sentimen nasionalisme Melayu yang kuat dalam pilihanraya ini pengundi lebih tertarik dengan isu kemerdekaan. Pilihanraya ini menyaksi kemunculan Parti Islam Se Malaya (PAS) yang telah memenangi sebuah kerusi.

Berikutan dengan Pilihanraya ini "sistem ahli" telah di tukar kepada sistem kabinet. Tunku Abdul Rahman, selaku pemimpin Perikatan telah dilantik sebagai Ketua Menteri atau ketua kerajaan. Pesuruhjaya Tinggi British masih kekal sebagai ketua persekutuan dan mengekalkan kuasa mengesahkan undang-undang. Pemimpim-pemimpim Perikatan merasakan bahawa penganas Komunis harus diberi pengampunan bagi menggalakkan mereka menyerah diri dan menghentikan pemberontakan bersenjata. 

Komunis juga telah mengubah strategi perjuangan dengan melancarkan ofensif damai atau jalan perundingan. Pada Jun pemimpin-pemimpin Perikataan menerima surat bertarikh 1 Mei daripada PKM yang menyatakan bahawa tujuan perjuangan Tentera Pembebasan Bangsa Malaya (MRLA) untuk mendapatkan kemerdekaan bagi Malaya yang berperintahan demokrasi dan aman. 

PKM memberi bayangan bahwa mereka bersedia untuk menemui pihak kerajaan dan berunding bagi mewujudkan keamanan. Sebagai respons Tunku Abdul Rahman dan beberapa pemimpin Perikatan yang

lain mula menyokong idea untuk berunding dengan PKM. Keadaan ini menimbulkan kecemasan bagi pegawai-pegawai British daan Komanwel. Pesuruhjaya Tinggi memang sedar bahawa Perikatan dan PKM mempunyai satu matlamat yang sama iaitu untuk mengusir British dan mendapat kemerdekaan.

Ia berpendapat jika isu kemerdekaan dibincangkan "the Chief Minister may emerge from the meeting feeling that he has a closer identity of view (Oong,2000a:216)" PKM dan akan meningkatkan status Chin Peng. Status pegawai British pul akan merosot. Dengan demikian British mengambil keputusan untuk memberi kemerdekan pada 31 Ogos 1957 dengan menganggap isu Darurat bukan lagi menjadi halangan. Tunku pergi menemui Chin Peng dengan kemerdekaan sudah berada dalam tangan. Selepas Pertemuan Baling, Tunku mengetuai satu delegasi yang mengandungi empat wakil Perikatan dan empat wakil Sultan-sultan ke London untuk merundingkan kemerdekaan tanah Melayu. Mereka tiba dalam Januari 1956 dan berunding selama tiga minggu. British saperti yang dijangkakan akan memberikan kemerdekaan pada 31 Ogos 1957.

Kerajaan British telah melantik sebuah Suruhanjaya Komanwel (Commonwealth Commission) yang dikenali sebagai Reid Commision untuk membuat cadangan bagi perlembagaan masa hadapan Tanah Melayu. Commission ini mengandungi ahli-ahli termasuk Lord Reid sebagai Pengerusi, Sir Ivor Jennings ( united Kingdom), Sir William McKell (Australia), Mr. Justice Abdul Hamid (Pakistan), and Chief Justice B. Malik

(India). Suruhanjaya melawat dan memungut pandangan pada bulan Mei 1956.

Kedatangan Suruhanjaya ini meningkatkan lagi perasaan perkauman di antara penduduk-penduduk keturunan Melayu dan bukan Melayu terutama Cina kerana perbezaan kepentingan dalam tuntutan-tuntutan dan pandangan-pandangan mereka mengenai beberapa isu perlembagaan. Perikataan pada mulanya ingin menghantar satu memoranda juga menghadapi masaalah kerana tekanan-tekanan daripada pihak-pihak tertentu dalam kalangan organisasi-organisasi masing-masing: UMNO daripada masyarakat Melayu; MCA dengan masyarakat Cina dan MIC dengan masyarakat India.

Dewan-dewan perniagaan Cina dan persatuan-persauan sosial dan kebajikan Cina atau Hua Tuan menuntut supaya prinsip kewarganegaraan berasaskan jus soli yang ditentang kuat oleh masyarakat Melayu. Perikatan kemudian dapat bertolak-ansur mengenai isu ini yakni menerima prinsip jus soli tertangguh. Sesiapa yang dilahir pada atau selepas Merdeka akan diterima jadi warganegara secara otomatis.

Berdasarkan prinsip jus soli tertangguh ini hampir separoh daripada penduduk Cina yang membolehkan mereka menjadi pengundi dan memainkan peranan yang bermakna dalam kehidupan politik Tanah Melayu. Beberapa cadangan daripada UMNO atau masyarakat Melayu saperti kedudukan istimewa orang Melayu dikekalkan, agama Islam sebagai agama rasmi dan Bahasa Melayu sebagai Bahasa Kebangsaan dan Bahasa rasmi telah diterima dan menjadi sebahagian cadangan Perikatan. Perikatan menolak konsep dua kewarganegaraan.

Suruhanjaya Reid telah menyiapkan tugas merangka deraf perlembagaan Tanah Melayu pada Februari 1957. Deraf ini kemudian diteliti oleh sebuah Jawatankuasa Kerja tempatan yang mengandungi 11 ahli mewakili Sultan-sultan, Perikatan dan pegawai-pegawai British. Jawatankuasa Kerja membuat beberapa pindaan dan kemudian dibentangkan dalam Dewan Perundangan Persekutan pada 15 Ogos. 

Pada pukul 12 tengah malam 30 Ogos 1957 bendera Union Jack telah diturunkan dan Tunku Abdul rahman mengistiharkan kemerdekaan.

Rumusan

Tahun 1953 telah menyaksikan meningkatnya perjuangan politik yang berasaskan kerjasama antara kaum dan perjuangan ke arah kemerdekaan. Kumpulan-kumpulan politik dan gerakan nasionalis berbagai kaum bersama-sama menganjurkan dan menyertai persidangan antara kaum yang bertujuan meningkatkan keazaman bersama untuk menentukan dasar dan hala tuju politik Tanah Melayu.
Idea ini diambil dari resolusi Persidangan Sosialis Asia yang pertama di Rangoon yang diadakan pada 1953.

Mohamed Sopiee membawa pulang idea berkenaan yang menghasilkan Persidangan Kebangsaan atau National Conference dianjurkan oleh Menteri-menteri Besar dan IMP.
Idea ini juga menghasilkan persidangan kedua yang dikenali sebagai Konvensyen Nasional atau National Convention dianjurkan oleh Perikatan UMNO-MCA.. Pemimpin-pemimpin Melayu dan Cina sebagai diwakili oleh UMNO dan MCA telah berunding dan mencapai kata sepakat dalam menangani masalah hubungan kaum dan merapatkan kerjasama antara mereka.
Hasil daripada perbincangan dan pemikiran melalui pertemuan tidak formal UMNO dan MCA berjaya menganjurkan Konvensyen Nasional yang membuktikan kepada British bahawa Tanah Melayu telah bersedia untuk berdiri sendiri dan bersatupadu untuk membina sebuah negara bangsa baru yang dinamakan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu dan kemudian Malaysia.

Mupok Aku

SALCRA Pays It Participants With Dividend RM124 Per Hectare/Month For Year 2010

Kuching
Tuesday, 30th Nov 2010

SALCRA's Participants: This is Where Your Dividend Gone To

SALCRA : After 34 Years Of Being Established Only Manage to Pay It Participants RM124 Per Hectare/Month For Year 2010 Dividend

Alfred Jabu today has made an announcement that Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) is to pay the biggest dividend ever next year, and it will be disbursed in two phases.

Jabu who is also the SALCRA Chairman proudly told the reporters that SALCRA participants or landowners who run 18 estates will receive a total sum of RM 74.26 million. According to him the 2010 payout is a marked increase by more than RM37 million compared with 2009, where only RM37 million was paid out. But 2009 divident was lesser than year 2008, where the divident was paid at RM52 million.

Is the Dividend Pay-Out Significant  To The Participants/Landowners?

The RM 74.26 Million may be sound big but if we divide it by 50000 hectares which is the size of lands being developed by SALCRA, we will find that each hectare is only paid with RM 1485.20 per year or RM 124.00 of dividend per month. The amount still doesn't enough to uplift the standard of  living of the participants to surpass the "below poverty line", but is very much better than the advance dividend paid to the land owner that participate in the JV with PELITA and private company (Please see HERE for the amount of the Advance Dividends that were paid per hectare/per year and month to the NCR land owners ).

Historically, SALCRA was established on 1st May 1976, as a Government Statutory Body under the Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority Ordinance, 1976. The main purpose of establishing SALCRA was to enable and assist the State Government in achieving the objectives of the New Economic Policy (NEP), particularly concerning the eradication of poverty.

In Sarawak, a person is considered as living under the poverty line if his/her income is below RM 765 per month. There are 20,000 participants or landowner that participated with SALCRA oil palm plantation. Based on this figure, each participant will be paid an average of RM 310 dividend per month. Has it surpassed   Malaysian's "under the poverty line" ?

After 34 Years SALCRA Still Fails To Eradicate Poverty Among the Iban

After 34 Years SALCRA Still Failes To Achieve Its Mission: Not surprised because some Ibans have been acting as Running Dog for Taib Mahmud...Anyone look familiar?

The main mission for SALCRA when it was first established in year 1976 was to eradicate poverty especially among the rural Sarawakians. But until now SALCRA still failed to achieve it mission.

The amount of divident declared by SALCRA yesterday was far below the amount which will uplift the income of the participants to the RM 765 level.

I am not writting this article today just to blatantly condemn Jabu or SALCRA. My aim is to tell them that they still need to do a lot in order to uplift the living standard of the participants away from the poverty line. Jabu must also sincere to the participants and stop mislead them. They have to be told until SALCRA can pay them the monthly dividend of RM 765 per month until then SALCRA's is still fail in achieving its mission.

Lesson Learn to The Land Owner So As Not To Enter JV With Pelita and Private Company

Eventhought SALCRA after 34 years of its establishment it  still cannot achieved their mission that is to eradicate poverty but their terms and agreements with land owners are much better than the JV, such as ; SALCRA land lease is only 25 years and beyond that the land owners can decide whether to continue or  to discontinue the lease, and the last point, the land owners are the participants themselves.

But for the JV with Pelita and Private company, the term of agreement is totally differents from SALCRA such as :-  

(1) Land lease for 60 years ( Once the land owner enter into JV, in summary the land has been sold to the company)
(2) Share equity : 60% company, 30% land owner and 10 % Pelita ( The moment the JV is signed, the land owner had already lost 70% of the value of the land.
(3)Management of the estate : Land owners  have  no part to play ( The landowners will have to recieve the same pay with immigrant Indonesian workers )
(3) Divident : RM 150 per hectare per year or RM 12.50 per month

If We Had Already Enter Into JV What Choice  Do We Still Have

 In one of the land dispute between the NCR Landowners and the company, the police had been used by the company in robbing  their lands. Did anyone heard Jabu and Masing ever condemned the police for their brutality against the land owners who were all the Iban?

One of the land owner from Empaling, Sg Tenggang who had enter into the JV with Tetangga Akrab  has one day asked Bukittunggal  whether he still can withdraw from the JV? My answer to him was "None"  as we had already "surrender" or probate our NCR lands to the company.

But this was not the end I told him as we still have hope. And our only hope is through Pakatan Rakyat (PR). Yes, if we want to get back our NCR lands from the company our only hope is with the Pakatan Rakyat. Saudara Baru Bian, the Sarawak PKR's Chief promised that if Pakatan Rakyat successfully wresting  Petra Jaya from Barisan Nasional in the coming state election, the land Commission will be set-up to handle all matters related to NCR lands. And if this is happen, many of the Ibans will become the instant millionaire!

So the owner of the NCR lands if you want to take back your NCR land from the private company, and become instant millionaire, our only hope is through PR therefore we MUST  VOTE FOR PAKATAN RAKYAT.

Mupok Aku

Revelation By Sarawak Report : Taib Mahmud The Main Shareholder of Mulu Resort

Kuching
Friday, 26th Nov 2010

Sarawak Report today reveals that Sarawak Chief Minister's , Abdul Taib Mahmud, has a major personal shareholding in Sarawak’s highly controversial Royal Mulu Resort, a project that has received huge injections of cash from the State. This means that, as both Chief Minister and Finance Minister, Taib has authorised the diversion of large sums of public money straight into his own pocket.

According to the report, as State Resources and Planning Minister, Taib was also responsible for the forced acquisition of a large area of Native Customary Lands from the indigenous Berawan tribe to build the resort, for which the tribespeople received virtually no compensation. Their evidence therefore further exposes him for having authorised this land-snatch for his own direct benefit.

His shareholding is in a company that was incorporated as recently as November 2007, Mesti Bersatu Sdn Bhd. This in turn has a 50% shareholding of the Taib/Mahmud family company Kenyalang Cergas, one of the main shareholders of Borsamulu Resorts Bhd (BRSB). BRSB was handed the ownership and lucrative management contract for what was once a state-owned National Park, thanks to a series of decisions by Taib’s own government starting in 1991. The management contract is paid for by the taxpayer!

The other major beneficiaries and shareholders of the Royal Mulu Resort are members of his family, including his sister Raziah, her third husband Robert Geneid and the family of his late brother Arip Mahmud. Taib Mahmud has personally accused the Berawan people of being “greedy” for refusing to hand over their lands for ‘development’. Their peaceful protests in the 1990s were brutally put down by army and police and their leaders were imprisoned. Deprived of their territories, these communities are now impoverished and hungry and few people, apart from the Mahmud family, will have difficulty in discerning where the true greed lies.

This time it’s on record

The significance of this official confirmation of the Chief Minister’s own shareholding lies in the fact that Taib has normally sought to disguise his acquisitions and shareholdings in an attempt to avoid widespread allegations of corruption. He habitually uses members of his own family to hold shares on his behalf. Thus, the names of his many brothers and sisters, his late wife, his four children, nieces, nephews, cousins and in-laws are prominent as key shareholders in most of Sarawak’s important businesses.

Insiders have also told Sarawak Report that the elderly Chief Minister has employed a number of other devious methods to keep control of such companies until he is able to extract his wealth and invest it secretly abroad. These methods include forcing his nominees to sign undated resignation letters and share transfer forms, which he can use at any time to force their removal and employ somebody else as his front man or ‘nominee’!

Likewise, Sarawak Report has copies of US documents showing that shares which were publicly registered as belonging to family members were in fact secretly ‘held in trust’ for the Chief Minister himself.

In black and white - Chief Minister Taib Mahmud declares his interest!

Mesti Bersatu Sdn Bhd therefore forms a notable exception, in that Taib declares his financial interest in black and white in Malaysia’s Company Register. It is likely to have been an oversight on his part and a sign of his growing confidence that he can do what he likes in Sarawak and get away with it.

He is registered both as a Director and a Shareholder of Mesti Bersatu and holds 400,000 shares out of the 2,300,000 total shares issued for the company. The other shareholders are his late brother Arif’s three wives (condoned under the Muslim faith) and two grown up daughters. At RM 1.00 per share, Taib’s shareholding represents an outlay of 400,000 ringgit.

The company is registered as having ‘No Operation’ at it’s Kuching address, but in fact owns half the shares in Kenyalang Cergas Bhd, which was set up in 1992 as a direct Shareholder of the Royal Mulu resort. The other Directors and Shareholders of Kenyalang Cergas are Taib’s sister Raziah and her current husband Robert Geneid, who were behind the original development of the resort and act as the main directors of the company. Crony timber tycoons the Yaw family, the owners of Samling, have also put money into the project, along with the architect from Singapore. Crucially the Sarawak State Government has also taken up an interest in the venture and has usefully pumped in large sums of life-saving injections of cash from the taxpayer over the years. That involvement was of course thanks to Taib Mahmud.

All thanks to Taib!

Raziah and Robert Geneid reportedly came up with the plan to develop Mulu, which is famous for its caves, in the early 90s, when Raziah was still married to her 2nd husband. In 1991, thanks to Taib Mahmud the Chief Minister, a decision was made by the Sarawak State Government to alienate land acquired in the National Park for a pitiful sum of RM 80 per acre from a local headman to their new family company the Royal Mulu Resort. The Geneids had no money or hotel experience, but Taib’s brother Arip, who had made money from another family venture Achipeligo Shipping (which has now developed into a separate major scandal over the allegations of billions made in timber kickbacks) invested in the venture.

Berawan land - who cares?

Given that the Chief Minister had alienated profitable state land into the hands of his unqualified sister and brother, the project was from the start corrupt. Even more corrupt has been the continuing support by the state of Sarawak, through the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation, of what has turned out to be a lamentably unprofitable venture. In the name of ‘developing tourism’ the SEDC has been paying what appear to be astronomical ‘management fees’ to the Geneids and their co-shareholders for running their own hotel investment!

This generosity has turned what would have been a disastrous investment and a failed venture into a major money-spinner for Raziah and Robert (the son of an Australian fruit-vendor) who appear to have turned the resort into something of a family forest playground, judging from family facebook sites. Indeed few actual tourists go there and most tourist guides warn visitors that the small sized National Park has long since been stripped of its wildlife by the effects of Taib’s logging activities in all the surrounding areas.

It is also, of course, thanks to Taib that awkward complaints by the local population have been so firmly suppressed by the full force of the state and police. Thus, while the Geneids party in luxury (arriving at their holiday hideaway via a specially-built airstrip that involved blowing off the top of a sacred mountain and taking more of the land that belonged to the natives), the local people have received none of the benefits of the much-trumpeted ’progress and development’.

The Berawan tribe have now returned to court to fight the company’s forced acquisition (thanks to Taib’s government) of yet more of the NCR lands for a second extension of the resort as part of a deal to develop it further, in collaboration with the US-owned Marriott Hotel chain. So far they have received no compensation or recognition of their claims from Taib, despite the fact that previous governments did recognise their ownership of the land.

The Marriott Hotel chain appears to have no shame in participating in this deal, having already collaborated with Raziah Mahmud in developing the Marriott in Miri, again thanks to favours and land alienated by the government of Abdul Taib Mahmud.

However, Unesco which attributed World Heritage status to the site in 2000 has already signalled its own deep concern about the situation at Mulu. Its 2008 report into the management of World Heritage Sites states that the Chief Minister’s plan to flood great areas of Sarawak with dams will also affect Mulu and the report further raises concerns about reports that ” the benefits of tourism and World Heritage designation are not available to the indigenous groups. If these reports were confirmed” the report states “this lack of engagement of local communities could threaten the effectiveness of management and impact the integrity of the property”. The UNESCO report requires reassurances by 2010, which can hardly have been forthcoming.

Furthermore, UNESCO, which in 2000 listed Mulu as a World Heritage site has already raised the management of the park as an issue of concern. In its 2008 report into the management of World Heritage Sites it states that the Chief Minister’s plan to flood great areas of Sarawak with dams could impact on the site and further states that the “lack of engagement of local communities could …impact the integrity of the property”. The report requires reassurances by 2010, which can hardly have been forthcoming.

Local poor are dependent on tourist tips

Despite the usual bragging about ‘progress’ from AbdulTaib Mahmud, the ‘development’ of Mulu has predictably provided no compensation and little in the way of jobs for the local people. The Berawan are apparently banned from being guides in the park they know so well. In return these people have lost their lands and livelihoods and no longer have their hunting grounds. The Geneids and their government partners have therefore provided virtually nothing for the people who they have displaced, many of whom are starving hungry.

Progress and development at Royal Mulu - for the natives that is.

The once nomadic Penan of the area have likewise lost their hunting grounds, due to Taib-sponsored logging all around the actual park (which is on high ground and therefore does not have very interesting trees) and they are now living in shanty settlements on the fringes of the Berawan lands. Far from enjoying the fruits of modernisation they survive from making baskets for the few tourists who come to look at them from the resort hotel. So poor was the standard of housing provided by the Geneids in this ‘progress and development’ scheme that one such tourist himself put up the money to pay for the removal of mosquito-breeding swamps from beneath the settlement’s main longhouse, which had been a major discomfort and health hazard.

So how much has the Sarawak State paid to the Taib family to run Mulu?

Nevertheless, the taxpayer is still being forced to pay substantial sums to the Geneids in the name of ‘developing tourism’, for managing their own venture! The big question is exactly how much has Sarawak invested in this project that is now being taken up by the Marriott? Sarawak Report has ascertained that in 2007, the same year that Taib Mahmud openly acquired his shares in the company, a new contract was drawn up whereby the State was to pay even larger sums into the Borsamulu Resort Company, of which he was now publicly an owner.

Sarawak Report has been informed from reliable sources that the agreement was for Borsamulu’s management subsidiary to be paid RM 50 million a year for 50 years by the state. This means that the State of Sarawak has agreed to pay the Geneids and indeed the Chief Minister himself, RM 50 million a year to manage their own investment until the day they die! We therefore ask the Government of Sarawak if they will please confirm this figure and explain on what grounds they think they can condone such corruption?

Clearly these figures should be made public as it is the right of the people of Sarawak to be informed of the total sum of public money that has been poured into the Geneid’s forest playground since its inception in 1993 and they should also know how much more it is committed to spend.

Marriott Hotel

Sarawak Repot would also like to enquire of the Marriott Hotel Chain whether this continuing support by the Sarawak taxpayer forms part of their ’incentive’ for taking up a joint venture with the Geneids at Borsamulu Resort and also whether the company holds any ethical standards regarding human rights and the environmental impact of their activities? If so, how does their involvement in Borsamulu equate with these standards?

Marriott’s new business partners in their joint venture with Borsamulu Resort include the Chief Minister of Sarawak and his family, the State Government of Sarawak and the logging giant, Samling, recently condemned in an investigation into illegal logging by the Norwegian Government. Since Marriott are re-launching the resort under the auspices of eco-tourism and the Chief Minister and his family can only be described as one of the worst environmental menaces alive on this planet, we would like to ask Marriott how they are planning to deal with this contradictory arrangement?

'Eco-tourism' - a Geneid pal contributes to the destruction of the Mulu homeland of the Berawan Tribe

We would also like to enquire if Marriott can reveal the true identity of another of the major shareholders of Borsamulu, Widervale Assets Limited? We assume that in the course of doing their due diligence into the joint venture eco-tourism project they have identified the owner of this company, however in an instance of extreme irregularity it is not registered on the Malaysian Company Register, despite such a significant holding in a prominent state government-backed concern!

Given that Marriott Hotel Group’s promotional material regarding their planned acquisition of Mulu in 2011 claims confidence in the “eco-tourism potential” of the Royal Mulu Resort, Sarawak Report would finally like to ask on what criteria the Marriott Hotel Group judges ‘eco-tourism’? Their new business-partner, the Chief Minister of Sarawak, has sponsored the destruction of a huge segment of the Borneo rainforest, destroying the landscape of the whole of Sarawak. He authorised the logging of thousands of square miles of virgin rainforest surrounding the tiny Mulu National Park, eradicating most of the wild-life of the region, including inside the Park itself. In the process the local people and native forest tribes have been nearly starved into extinction and left to rot without a shred of compensation. Their protests have been put down by armed police.

We would therefore like to ask the Marriott Hotel Group how they intend to explain and justify these circumstance to their visiting ‘eco-tourists’ and indeed to concerned onlookers at UNESCO’s World Heritage Commission?

To Read More Here

Another Police Brutality : Hope It Happens to Malaysia No 1 Family Members One Day

Kuching
Thursday, 25th Nov 2010

With this latest police shooting spree, Malaysian is confirmed as no longer safe country for night goers!

Malaysian Government Will Only Take Action Against The Lawless Policemen If  This Happen to their family members!

The family of noodle seller Ho Chei Hang is crying out for justice as he lies in hospital with wounds in his back that were caused by police bullets.

Police plan to charge him for drug possession and attempted murder, but the family swears that he is an upright citizen.

“It’s the police who should be charged for attempted murder,” said his lawyer, Keppy Wong, at a press conference this morning.

Ho, 32, was shot in the back four times while he was driving his car in a residential area in Kepong at dusk last Tuesday.

Police said two plainclothes officers opened fire because Ho tried to attack them by ramming his car into them. They said they suspected that he was carrying illegal drugs.

According to Wong, Ho was in the area to chat with a friend about car accessories. He was driving home when the two officers starting chasing him on foot and shouting at him. Not knowing that they were policemen, he drove off. The two opened fire several times.

"After he was shot, he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the brick wall of a house, not because he was trying to ram into the police,” said Wong. “The car door opened and he fell into a monsoon drain."

Wong said police told him they found 45 sleeping pills and no weapons in the car.

"The sleeping pills were for his mother, who has difficulty sleeping,” he added. “Those are not illegal."

He said the policemen neither identified themselves nor fired a warning shot.

"Furthermore, why didn't they shoot at the tires? Why should they open fire so many times until he was shot four times?"

'He's a good man'

Wong described Ho’s survival as a miracle. An ambulance took one hour to arrive at the scene, he said.

Doctors at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital have extracted three bullets from Ho’s back. They said they were waiting until he got stronger before removing another slug, which is lodged in a shoulder.

"He was handcuffed to the bed even though he could barely speak and move,” Wong said. “That's violating his human rights."

The family has lodged a police report about the shooting and plans to complain to Suhakam.

"My husband is innocent,” said Ho's wife, Tan Chsiew Yong, a 29-year-old medical student. “Why did they have to shoot him?

"I was told they shot more than four times. They shot wildly. It was a public place. What if they had hit someone else? There's even a kindergarten there."

Tan wept as she spoke.

"My husband has no prior records, he is a good man. The only vice he has is smoking. We go out for supper sometimes, just the two of us. He doesn't have any other outside activities. When he has time, he makes fishballs at home.

"When I saw him, I thought he was going to die. He had all these pipes all over his body.

“We just want some justice.”

Ketamine in the car

Sentul district police chief ACP Zakaria Pagan said police had received information about two cars driven by suspicious individuals in the area and had tried to stop the two men for checks.

"However, police were forced to react when one of the cars tried to ram into the officers," he said, adding that the other car, a white Nissan Fairlady, drove off.

"We cannot take things for granted when we believe it is a drug related offence as the suspects may have a weapon."

He said police was treating the case as attempted murder and drug possession.

They found the drug Ketamine in the car, he added.

NCR Land Owners Warn Pelita and Kim Loong To Return their NCR Lands or Else

Kuching
Sunday, 21st November 2010

Note: Bukit Tunggal is  at the background of the photo.... 

On 3rd September 2004 the land owners from several longhouses namely Munggu Ubah, Tekuyong, Empaling,Isu and Gayau were misled by the BN representatives for Bukit Bengunan and Sri Aman to sign the JV for oil palm plantation with Pelita and Tetangga Akrab Sendirian Berhad.

Today after of  more than six years the JV had been signed, the land owners were only  been paid with the advance bonus for less than RM 1000 per hectare. This is equivalent to less than RM 170 per hectare per year.

Today as I went back to kampong Empaling, one of the longhouse that participates in the JV, almost all the land owners indicated that they were not happy with the JV.

One of the land owner John Ade (photo left)  told Bukittunggal that if he did not participate with the JV, with rubber current price he believed that his 1.3 hectares  rubber plantation could produce more than RM 1000 per month, meaning that he had lost about RM 72000 in six years.
But he is not the only NCR land owner that losing substantial income as a result of the JV. Bukittunggal family also losing more than RM1K per month as a result of the JV. 

But where are the BN YBs that had persuaded and influenced  them to sign the JV? They cannot just simply wash their hands. 

Other than losing substantial income from their small rubber estates the JV also split the longhouses. The land dispute amongst member of the family is something normal nowadays especially the lands that involved in the JV.

Most of the NCR land owners felt betrayed by the BN representatives. There was a talk amongst the land owners that they intended to  withdraw from the JV if by the end of this year that they still do not get a reasonable dividend from Kim Loong. Some of them even informed  Bukittunggal that they will take their lands by illegal means such as sit in or through proper legal process if they still do not pay with dividend at the end of the year.

To the BN's YBs,  they must be responsible with what they had started. Their job should not be accomplished  after receiving their "kang-tow" from the developer. And if they are not willing to take responsibilities on what they had done, the land owners through their  voting rights must show these BN Representatives the way out by VOTING THEM OUT in the coming state election.

Mupok Aku