Last Sunday, there was a victory celebration at Ladang Midlands. The victory of the last batch of workers 25 families - finally agreeing to accept a settlement for moving out form the estate owners, concluding a bitter struggle which has stretched for 15 years. The last batch to leave the estate was the batch aligned with Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).

They were the bravest, the last to settle and of course, the ones who got the best deal. According to history, Ladang Midlands was the first estate to be planted with rubber in Selangor in 1889 by a British company Highlands and Lowlands. Its early history is full of stories of suffering. At one time, the estate was called 'Ladang Air Kuning' (Yellow Water Plantation) because the water supplied was yellow in colour. This resulted in many deaths from malaria and cholera.