COMMENT | If anyone thinks that dealing with the staff of the Road and Transport Department (RTD) is bad, just wait till you meet the little Napoleons in the Land Office.

No joint-venture (JV) company would be excited in hectares of swampy, malaria-infested land, with little or no access to the bog. Would it show interest in hilly land covered in impenetrable virgin jungle? Of course not.

At one time, few farmers had the money to buy land, so they grew crops on the jungle verges, with or without the permission of the state.

Today, development and urban sprawl have brought the twin problems of greed and commercial exploitation to the farmer's doorstep, as happened in Raub.

The Pahang JV company is only interested in the farmers' area because of world demand for Musang King durians, the presence of mature fruit-bearing trees, the cleared land, easy access, good drainage and irrigation, and the presence on the plots, of small huts for storing tools and taking shelter, whilst waiting for the fruits to fall.

Raub, famous for its gold mining, is now the centre of another type of tussle - the golden flesh of the Musang King durian.

Around the country, there have been many land grabs...