IPOH, Aug 15 — The Perak government should stop its internal bickering over the award of land titles to new villages and instead focus on resolving the decades-long problem, a state Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) leader said today.
Its legal bureau chief K. Kunasekaran added that the resolution should be much smoother now as the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition was in power at both state and federal level.
“Therefore, it is not impossible for the state to solve the matter with the Federal Government as both are under Pakatan Harapan now.
“If there is political will and sincerity, the state should forward the matter to the federal government so that the National Land Council can meet soonest to discuss the matter,” he said in a statement.
Kunasekaran was commenting on the conflict of opinion between Mentri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu and state executive councillor Abdul Aziz Bari over the award of land titles to new villages.
Kunasekaran also reminded the state government that new village titles are not the only big issue.
“There is also the issue of housing lot for settlers and farmers who are facing eviction from private sectors and state government-linked agencies,” he said.
When winding up during the state assembly on Monday, Ahmad Faizal said it was against the Federal Constitution to bestow permanent titles to new villages.
This prompted Abdul Aziz to rebut that there are no provisions in the Federal Constitution that prevent the state government from issuing permanent land titles to new villages.
Giving of permanent titles was one of Perak Pakatan Harapan’s promise in its 14th general election manifesto.
