COMMENT | Gatco settlers’ saga - the great Harapan betrayal
COMMENT | The Gatco settlers have been betrayed many times by many parties. They thought all this would end with Pakatan Harapan taking power in 2018.
How better to describe this than to take a line from Karl Marx, “History repeats itself; first as tragedy, second as farce.”
The two statements on the issue by DAP and Harapan's Negeri Sembilan exco S Veerapan that were carried in the Tamil media on Nov 25 and 29, 2020 were a shocking example of the worst kind of betrayal.
Veerapan said that the remaining Gatco Settlers and buyers will be only offered four acres and two acres of land respectively and that this was final. This goes against all the actions, statements and rhetoric the Harapan leaders, especially those in Negeri Sembilan had been saying all this while.
MIC leaders had a field day, and rightfully so, attacking Veerapan and his counterparts, especially Ravi Munusamy, P Gunasekaren and Arul Kumar...
COMMENT | The Gatco settlers have been betrayed many times by many parties. They thought all this would end with Pakatan Harapan taking power in 2018.
How better to describe this than to take a line from Karl Marx, “History repeats itself; first as tragedy, second as farce.”
The two statements on the issue by DAP and Harapan's Negeri Sembilan exco S Veerapan that were carried in the Tamil media on Nov 25 and 29, 2020 were a shocking example of the worst kind of betrayal.
Veerapan said that the remaining Gatco Settlers and buyers will be only offered four acres and two acres of land respectively and that this was final. This goes against all the actions, statements and rhetoric the Harapan leaders, especially those in Negeri Sembilan had been saying all this while.
MIC leaders had a field day, and rightfully so, attacking Veerapan and his counterparts, especially Ravi Munusamy, P Gunasekaren and Arul Kumar.
The main issue of contention: Previously these Harapan leaders were standing alongside the settlers fighting for eight acres of land whereas BN and MIC had agreed to accept the four acres offered by the BN government which was then in power. This conflict between the eight acres settlers and the four acres settlers resulted in many arrests, fights, destruction of property and even racial flashpoints.
Veerapan’s feeble defence was that he never said that they would offer the settlers eight acres. This was an outright lie. The least Veerapan could have said was that it was not possible given the circumstances, etc. He could have apologised but arrogance seems to be a big problem for this first term government.
Worse still the settlers had to read and get this news from the newspaper and social media. I am writing this article to state the truth of the matter.
Upon Harapan winning federal and state power
On May 9, 2018, Harapan won a historical election victory ending 60 years of Umno-BN rule. In Negeri Sembilan, the Harapan government also wrested the state for the first time and formed the state government on May 25, 2018.
The victory brought much joy and hope to the Gatco settlers because the Harapan leaders had also stood firm together with those supporting the fight for eight acres against the offer of four acres for original settlers and two acres for buyers made by the previous chief minister, Mohamad Hasan.
The settlers and the people clearly remember Harapan leaders including the current MB standing together with the settlers in attacking the BN government’s offer and solution to the Gatco issue.
The evidence is overwhelming as these Harapan leaders were seen in the many demonstrations standing with the settlers, to the extent of getting arrested. All these flashbacks cannot be erased from the memory or swept under the carpet.
The position taken then by these Harapan leaders was that the settlers were cheated, short-changed by the Mat Hasan government which practiced corruption and cronyism besides colluding with Tamarai Holdings, a subsidiary of the Lotus group.
To express their joy and happiness at the Harapan victory in the state, the Gatco settlers organised their first public gathering outside the state government office on June 1, 2018, less than a week after Harapan came to power. They carried a huge banner with photos of the Harapan leaders.
In the memorandum they handed over on that day, they called for all logging activities in their land to be stopped and wanted the new government to expose the corruption and hanky-panky during the BN government era.
There were many issues such as the sale of the land to Tamarai Holdings without open auction and below market price, as well as the contract given for logging of the rubber trees. This was supposed to be the time of redemption and a time to rectify and expose such misdeeds.
In fact, Prof Jomo Kwame Sundaram, one of those appointed to the Council of Elders by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, declared that there were many 1MDBs and cited Gatco in Negeri Sembilan as one of them.
First meeting and first assurance
Most settlers, as well as the settler’s lawyer R Kenghadharan who turned up to meet the new leadership, were not very happy to see the gate leading to the state assembly still closed in spite of the new government taking charge. Some Harapan leaders immediately blamed PSM for instigating the people and said that they had just come to power and it was unfair to put such a huge demand during their first week in power.
Nevertheless, after the gathering, the state government appointed four Indian Harapan leaders - Ravi, Veerapan, Arul Kumar and Gunasekaren to meet with the Gatco committee.
The Gatco eight acres committee was represented in the meeting by the settlers’ lawyer Kenghadharan. PSM was strictly denied an invitation as the new government was conveniently looking for someone to blame.
Kenghadharan briefed the four Harapan leaders in detail and explained the rationale behind the eight acres claim - which was in fact in the agreement that stated that the original settlers must be given their eight acres. At this meeting, the settlers and their lawyers were assured that the new government would pursue their claim for eight acres as promised earlier.
The settlers were happy and invited the state assemblypersons to come to Gatco in Jempol, near the border of Pahang and brief the settlers directly.
From the horse’s mouth
On 11 July 2018, three Harapan leaders - Gunasekaren, Ravi and Veerepan - went to Gatco settlement at around 2.30pm and addressed around 60 settlers there.
They said that the state government will offer original settlers eight acres of land and buyers four acres of land. Gunasekaren was very confident and said the issue will be resolved by Aug 31, 2018, whereas Veerapan and Ravi took a more cautious stance and said that they would resolve the issue latest by the end of 2018.
This public pledge by the three leaders is always cited each time I ask the settlers if they indeed made the promise. Just to check their sincerity, I told them to make a statutory declaration (SD) that these leaders did indeed promise them eight acres and today we have not one but more than 30 individual SDs from settlers who attended the meeting and who vowed that the Harapan representatives made the promise in public.
Now would these three assemblypersons also sign an SD stating that they did not say this?
Veerapan repeated this in the state assembly?
Tamil dailies Malaysia Nanban and Makkal Osai published the news that Veerapan stated in the state assembly on Sept 26, 2018, that 170 settlers who earlier agreed for the four acres for original settlers and two acres for buyers will be given their land as earlier promised and stated that the remaining settlers will be given eight acres and four acres of land respectively.
We in the PSM have tried on numerous occasions to get the Hansard but the so-called Harapan “transparent” government have denied our request on several occasions. They asked us first to write in. When we wrote in, they wanted to know what we wanted to do with it, etc.
What is the secrecy they want to protect when even the parliamentary Hansard can be obtained by the public easily? Why cannot the state assembly public discussion be made public?
2018 deadline ended with unfulfilled promises
On Oct 13, 2018, a by-election was forced by PKR in what is known as the PD move in which Anwar Ibrahim stood as a candidate and won. During the campaign period, some PKR supporters brought the Gatco settlers to campaign for Harapan and use the occasion to further hurl scorn on BN for not fulfilling the eight acres promises for Gatco settlers.
As the year 2018 was ending, we seemed to get the impression that the Harapan government were not going to resolve the Gatco settlers issue as they had promised in July.
We sought a meeting urgently and on Nov 29, 2018, we got an appointment with Veerapan (photo), the exco in charge of the Gatco issue. I attended the meeting along with PSM state leader R Gandhi and John Cantius, the secretary of the eight acres settlers committee.
We asked Veerapan about the promises made as well as the deadline which was approaching. I also told him that he must meet the people or at least give them a letter if he couldn’t fulfil the 2018 deadline. When asked about the process, Veerapan said that they will first settle the two and four acres for those who previously asked for it and then with the balance land, settle the eight acres for those who were fighting for it.
Veerapan spoke about the win-win situation and said that he will try for eight acres and no promises. He also reprimanded our committee for asking eight acres for the buyers as well, saying this was unfair. I agreed with him and said that we could agree for four acres for buyers.
Just before we left, a thought crossed my mind and I asked him a question. Wouldn’t the first batch of people who are given four and two acres protest and make noise if they know that the state government will be giving the second batch eight acres? And he told me that the pro-BN settlers only asked for four and two acres so they had no business demanding anything more.
So at this meeting, Veerapan’s position was still that they will resolve the first group and then try to get the eight acres for the second group as promised. He also assured us that he will notify us if they could not fulfil the promise by the end of the year but it was looking more and more certain that they would not keep to the deadline.
Sit in protest and meeting the MB
The next milestone in the struggle was on Feb 12, 2019, when more than 100 settlers organised a protest and sit-in outside the Negeri Sembilan state secretariat office. They wanted to sit in until they could meet the MB because they were not happy with the continuous delay and wanted some answers from the chief minister.
After waiting for more than six hours, they were finally assured that a meeting with the Negeri Sembilan MB would be organised and Veerapan gave them a letter to that effect, after which they dispersed.
On Feb 20, 2019, 10 settlers were invited for the meeting with the new MB, Aminuddin Harun. In the meeting, the settlers questioned and raised many issues especially on the subject of who had been given the tender to log the rubber trees as these rubber trees were planted by the settlers and they should be rightfully compensated.
They also urged the state government to use the land acquisition act to recover the remaining land from Lotus as this scheme was meant to eradicate poverty among the people then. The MB asked for 10 days to discuss with his officers before giving any feedback.
On March 7, 2019, once again Ravi initiated a meeting between the settlers’ leader and the MB. The state was again facing a by-election after the Rantau seat fell vacant when the court cancelled Mohamad’s uncontested win.
So the settlers believed that this meeting was arranged to thwart any plans they might have of organising any protest at this time which may hurt the image of the Harapan state government.
The MB in this meeting said what the previous BN government did was a political gimmick - promising to give the settlers land but not fulfilling the promise - and that his government will give land by Aug 31 to those seeking four and two acres, and then resolve their eight acres demand after that. The MB kept asking them for patience and asked them to give him time to resolve the issue.
March 30 was the nomination for the Rantau by-election where the previous MB, Mohamad, would be contesting. Now one team of Harapan supporters again sought the Gatco people’s support and asked them to lodge a police report against Mohamad for corruption on the Gatco land matter.
PSM and I distanced ourselves from this action because it became apparent to us that Harapan members were just using the Gatco settlers for their own agenda when in fact Harapan had yet to deliver the eight acres promise.
Nevertheless, with the encouragement of the Harapan members, the settlers lodged a police report against Mohamad on March 28, 2019 - two days before nomination day. The report was lodged at Seremban 2 police station with around 40 settlers in attendance.
Land titles given to the first batch
The mantra by Harapan leaders each time they were confronted with the question of the eight acres settlers was "let’s resolve the first batch first and then we will resolve yours".
Finally, on Nov 29, 2019, land titles were given to the first batch which was four acres for settlers and two acres for the buyers. The following week, the media reported that 170 titles were given to the first batch and that the rest would be given later. It was not reported in the news how the government wanted to settle the remaining settlers fighting for eight acres.
The numbers did not tally
The settlers who were fighting for eight acres started to get restless. Because it is a known fact that if additional land is not obtained from Tamarai holdings, then the Harapan government would not be able to fulfil their promises to the eight acres settlers.
Based on our calculation, we would need 888 acres of land for the second batch which comprised of 82 original settlers and 58 buyers receiving eigh and four acres respectively.
Since Lotus had given the state government 1,206 acres, and out of this, 594 acres had been given to the first batch, so we estimated that there would be a shortage of land and that an additional 275 acres of land would be needed to fulfil the promise. On the question of if there was additional land, that shouldn’t be a problem because the original amount of land acquired by Lotus was 4,700 acres.
We organised a press conference to highlight this on Jan 14, 2020, in Kuala Lumpur. As the Harapan leaders who were our allies before this, became less and less cooperative, we finally wrote a letter to the menteri besar on June, 2020, reiterating all the earlier promises as well as earlier discussions. We also highlighted the need for the state government to acquire additional land.
Veerapan had always been telling the people that he would be calling them for a meeting. Then at one point, he said that they will open counters in Jempol so that the settlers can prove that they are the original settlers.
But nothing of that sort happened. What finally happened was the Harapan government betrayed the settlers and ended up giving them the same offer which BN had promised all along.
Today it is finally proven that this political coalition of hope is hopeless. They have gone against the very demands they supported in the Gatco settlers’ struggle and worse are still justifying their reversal.
Veerapan is not to be entirely blamed and other Harapan leaders who used these settlers to advance their own political ambitions must also be held responsible.
In the final analysis, what the settlers got today is worse than what they had more than 40 years ago. They initially had 10 acres, then it was reduced to eight and now Harapan has successfully reduced it to four.
Background
Gatco stands for The Great Alonioners Trading Corporation Bhd, a company incorporated in 1977 by the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) to facilitate a land development scheme for its members.
It is similar to a Felda scheme, only that the majority of the settlers participating in this scheme are Indian Malaysians compared to Felda schemes which are dominated by Malays. Therefore Indian Malaysians do have a strong sense of attachment to the plight of these settlers who are dubbed the largest Indian land settlers.
The settlement covers 4,700 acres of land and was awarded by the Negeri Sembilan state government. It was a deal made by the Negeri Sembilan-born PP Narayanan, NUPW’s general secretary, and Isa Samad, who was the menteri besar of the state then.
NUPW mobilised its members from all over the country to this land promising them a future and a fortune. Each settler had to pay RM7,600 which was a huge sum at that time to participate in this scheme. Each family was then provided with one acre of land for housing and ten acres for planting sugar cane and were given a 66-year lease.
Out of the total 430 settlers, 280 settlers were Indians, 120 Malays and 30 Chinese and they moved into Kampung Serampang Indah which is more fondly called Kampung Gatco, located near Jempol. It is a rural location, just 60km south of the Pahang border. The nearest town is located 40km away in Bahau.
The sugar cane plantation venture collapsed in the early 80s. Gatco then went into planting rubber trees and to cover the cost, a new agreement was signed that each of the settlers had to surrender two acres of land which would be used to settle losses and do the replanting of rubber trees there. So this was how the 10 acres became eight acres.
Continous mismanagement plunged Gatco into debt and it was declared bankrupt in 1983. Gatco failed to settle its loans from Bank of Commerce (now called CIMB) and the land was subsequently surrendered to Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Berhad (Danaharta) before liquidators Singam and Yong took over in 1996.
In the original agreement, according to the settlers, they should be given the first opportunity to buy the land if it was up for sale, but what later transpired was the land was suddenly sold by the liquidators to Tamarai Holdings, a subsidiary of Lotus group of companies who bought the land way below the market rate.
The settlers claim that they were ready to buy the land but suddenly Tamarai bought the land through some backdoor deal. In September 2017, two directors of Lotus were detained and investigated under the MACC for matters relating to Gatco land.
Lotus bought the land from the liquidator for only RM16 million (RM4,000 per acre). This was the original price of land not taking into account the value of the rubber trees planted there.
The value of the rubber trees alone can fetch up to RM 6,000 per acre. So that is why the rubberwood has become the main flashpoint in the battle between Lotus and the settlers.
This is also the reason behind the arrest of the settlers years ago on July 18 and 24, 2017, where 28 elderly settlers and later 30 settlers from Gatco were arrested, chained and remanded. This had created national outrage as the video of them being chained together and brought to court created a massive outpouring of sympathy and anger among the public.
The images were a testimony of slavery in modern times. The settlers were arrested for blocking lorries carrying rubberwood out of the Gatco settlement.
The settlers claimed these rubber trees belonged to them and removing them was an encroachment on their right to livelihood. This resulted in many arrests, torching of lorries and cars, break-ins and vandalism etc with both parties blaming each other for the violence.
Actually, the crack within the settlers happened when suddenly the land lease was extended to 99 years by PKNNS, a state government agency and as a payback, Lotus surrendered 1,206 acres back to the government.
As a result of this, on June 15, 2015, the menteri besar declared that the four-decade problem in Gatco had been resolved with the government offering original settlers four acres and two acres for buyers.
Since the offer of four acres was made, the Gatco settlers are in two camps, one supporting the menteri besar who agreed to offer four acres while another half of them are in the eight acres camp.
They believe that they are entitled to the eight acres and have taken Lotus to court as well as stopped Lotus on the ground. Harapan and its front line leaders in the state had stood with the eight acres settlers and promised that their misery would end when they came to power.
So after decades of betrayal, Harapan has just joined the club and done exactly the same thing they said they would not do. NUPW was blamed for reducing the 10 acres to eight and now Harapan joins BN in reducing the eight acres to four.
The settlers continue to fight among themselves while both BN government then and Harapan government today have ended up conceding the land to Lotus.
S Arutchelvan is the deputy chairperson of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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