ISKANDAR PUTERI: Accusations that the implementation of policies on Malay reserve land only serves to benefit Johor’s political elite are baseless.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the notion that having Malay reserve land was politically motivated was as far from the truth as possible.
He said policies carried out for Malay reserve land were brought about to ensure balanced demographics for land ownership in Johor.
“The accusation that Malay reserve land only benefits the elite is an accusation that is not supported by any fact. The applications to seek Malay reserve land status are made by Malays themselves, and these applications go through a process.
“So, how can there be any accusation that says that the Malay reserve land benefits the elites?” said Khaled when replying to a supplementary question from Tan Hong Pin (DAP-Mengkibol) at the state assembly.
Tan had said that there was a need to look into the implementation of policies for Malay reserve land in Johor as they were carried out to benefit the “political elite and those close to them”.
Khaled said the state government was unapologetic in its policies on Malay reserve land, which went hand-in-glove with another state government policy to ensure that Malays are given opportunities to own land and property in urban areas.
“We need to get rid of the mentality that there is no economic value when land is given Malay reserve status. Many people cannot see beyond a land’s commercial value. It is much more than that as it is a symbol for Malays which is abstract and intrinsic,” he said.
Khaled said the Johor government’s policies could not be compared to the opposition-led state governments in Selangor and Penang as Johor practised the concept of equity when it came to land matters.
He also provided figures of Malay reserve land in Johor and compared it to the available statistics of Malay reserve land in those two other states.
He said until July 31 this year, there were 555,527.86ha of Malay reserve land in Johor, which was 29.4 per cent of the total land mass of Johor.
Kota Tinggi district had the most Malay reserve land at 128,255.34ha followed by Muar (80,064.31ha) and Segamat (62,090.81ha).
“If we want to compare Johor with Selangor and Penang, which are states that are always on the lips of assemblymen, then we will see that Selangor has 20.2 per cent of its overall land mass comprising Malay reserve land. In Penang, it is a very sad thing to note that there is no Malay reserve land,” said Khaled.