KUALA LUMPUR: The government is determined to claim back federal land in Bukit Chagar in Johor Baru if its ownership had been transferred to the Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the federal government was the rightful owner of the land surrounding the Sultan Iskandar Building Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ).
He said this in response to reports that a 4.5ha plot of land in Bukit Chagar, which was initially earmarked for the Rapid Transit System (RTS) train link, was now registered under the Johor ruler’s name.
The controversy has also implicated newly-appointed Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal, whom the prime minister had met earlier along with his executive council members during a 75-minute closed-door session.
Though the exact topic of the meeting was not made known, it is believed to have been over the RTS land issue.
Dr Mahathir said the government did not have all the information with regards to the matter yet, adding that Sultan Ibrahim’s ownership of the plot still remained a rumour.
“Yes. It is our land. We will claim back the land. If any other party had taken the land, they must go through existing processes.
“So far, based on what we know... we have not received a full report. We have only heard rumours from the press that the land had been taken over by His Majesty the Sultan of Johor,” he told reporters after chairing a Pakatan Harapan presidential council meeting at the Al Bukhary Foundation.
Dr Mahathir said if it was true that the federal land in Bukit Chagar had changed hands, then the next move was to find out if payment was made by the party who purchased the land.
“If he (Sultan Ibrahim) had paid, then we have to buy back. If he hasn’t paid, we don’t buy back. It is our land... we acquired that land. It is part of the land that was acquired for constructing certain necessary buildings.”
The prime minister said he did not believe that there was any attempt by Sultan Ibrahim to wrongfully acquire the federal land, but he said that the issue can be resolved if the federal government clarified its ownership.
He also denied there was any tension between the federal government and the Johor palace due to this issue.
“There’s no tension. What tension? I don’t think Tuanku wants to confiscate federal land. We must make another claim. That land is actually ours (federal government).”
When elaborating on the need for the RTS project, he said the government was still considering whether it needed to continue with it as it would not totally resolve the massive congestion that occurs daily at the busy border crossing.
“We have agreed to take six months to analyse whether we want to continue or to make other proposals. It won’t solve the congestion problem because the train cannot carry all the passengers to and from Singapore, it cannot carry motorcycles and the train is limited in terms of its capacity,” he said.
The New Straits Times has learnt that the Johor Land and Mines Department discovered an anomaly in the ownership of a plot of land near the CIQ on Jan 28 this year.
A source said the department was notified that the title for the 4.5ha lot was transferred to Sultan Ibrahim. The lot was one of five in Bukit Chagar which the federal government received from the Johor government in 2012 as part of a land swap deal.
It was also learnt that a notice on a RM70,685 payment was received on July 25, 2012. However, up to today, the registration status of the land title has yet to be issued by the state government.
It is unclear when or how Sultan Ibrahim acquired the land but it has been learnt that ownership transfer was done under the previous Barisan Nasional administration sometime in 2017 or 2018.
When met at the Al Bukhary foundation here yesterday, Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal refused to speak to the media and entered his car when asked to comment on the status of the Bukit Chagar land for the RTS project.