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It is almost comical to read the current debate between ‘freehold’ and ‘leasehold’ at Forest City, Johor. More than that, the debate has now extended to ‘reclaimed land’ and ‘existing land’.

What started as ‘sovereignty’ and ‘development model’ issues have now turned into freehold versus leasehold and reclaimed land versus existing land debates.

I have a few questions:

First, does it matter whether the land is freehold or leasehold when the issue is national sovereignty? When foreigners own leasehold lands, do they have lesser claim on Malaysia when a situation warrants it?

Second, when conferring the land status (ie freehold or leasehold), why argue whether the land is reclaimed or existing? Are they saying for reclaimed lands, we could confer freehold status more readily than existing land? Why and how so? Are reclaimed lands not part and parcel of Malaysia’s and Johor’s territory?

I think we must be clear in our minds. When foreigners own freehold lands in Malaysia, they have no better claim to become citizens of Malaysia. We could have granted citizenship to people who own nothing or just leasehold lands. Similarly, owning lands, whether freehold or leasehold, confer them nothing over the ‘sovereignty’ of the area unless they become citizens.

I think what Dr Mahathir Mohamad said was this - a large swathe of lands was conferred freehold status and then sold to foreigners, significantly from one single country. When there is a huge concentration of foreigners owning and residing in one single locality, what would be the future implications like?

In the immediate term, I agree there is no fear of Malaysia losing the sovereignty of the area for sure. But this is a ‘development model’ many Malaysians are concerned with - we created a freehold township that is almost exclusively owned and to be resided by foreigners from a single third country.

I think the concern is not just for Forest City in Johor. There is a possibility that the same development model is being duplicated in other localities such as Malacca and the East Coast states once the rail project take effect.

It is an issue of affordability and pricing the properties beyond the reach of most Malaysians including even the middle and upper middle income groups. I think 5 percent of the rich in China are more than 50 percent of the middle class in this country. There is no level-playing field any more when come to purchasing power. There will be severe consequences if nothing is done to protect local interests.

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