After 42 years, we got best deal for Gatco settlers, says underfire DAP exco

Settlers in Kampung Serampang Indah near Jempol, Negeri Sembilan got the best possible land compensation deal after a previously fruitless 42-year struggle, said state executive councillor (exco) for Health, Environment, Cooperatives, and Consumerism S Veerapan.

Veerapan told Malaysiakini that the state government obtained a settlement under which original settlers and buyers in Kampung Serampang Indah, better known as Kampung Gatco, will be offered four acres (1.6ha) and two acres (0.8ha) of land respectively.

The DAP assemblyperson for Repah, said the deal was the best possible option considering that the land had been sold under auction in 2014 and the settlers had lost their case in the Federal Court.

Veerapan has come under heavy fire since announcing the decision in the Negeri Sembilan state assembly that the first batch of 139 settlers and buyers have already been issued their land titles.

Local MIC leaders say that when Veerapan and fellow Pakatan Harapan state leaders - deputy speaker M Ravi, exco member J Arul Kumar, and Seremban Jaya rep P Gunasekaran - were in the opposition, they had sharply criticised MIC for proposing the same deal and promised to get a better one.

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan also weighed in on the issue, saying that the settlers had been betrayed by the Harapan government which, after years of claiming BN had offered poor land compensation, has then turned around and agreed to identical terms.

"The Gatco settlers have been betrayed many times. They thought all this would end with Harapan taking power in 2018.

"The main issue of contention was - 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 that was then in power.

"This conflict between the eight-acre settlers and the four-acre settlers resulted in many arrests, fights, destruction of property, and even racial flashpoints," alleged Arutchelvan.

Veerapan denied betraying the settlers and said he has done his best.

"First of all, this situation has been going on for 42 years and even though the previous BN state government talked about it and made various announcements, the settlers were getting nothing.

"The problem was that Gatco failed to service loans and went bankrupt. It was only on the sixth auction the land was purchased by Thamarai Holdings (a subsidiary of the Lotus Group of Companies) for RM16mil.

"Nobody - not the settlers nor the previous state government made an effort to bid in the auction. So when we took over the state government and were determined to resolve the issue, we found our hands were tied.

"Still, we liaised with PKNS (Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Sembilan) and got a list of settlers and buyers because we didn't want them to end up empty-handed. At no point did we promise eight acres instead of four acres. We had no right to make such promises because the land was already privately held," he said.

A troubled history

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.

The settlement originally covered 4,700 acres of land and was awarded by the Negeri Sembilan state government after a deal between NUPW general secretary PP Narayanan and Isa Samad who was chief minister of the state then.

NUPW mobilised its members from all over the country with each settler having to pay RM7,600 to participate in this scheme. Each family was provided with one acre of land for housing, ten acres for planting sugar cane, and given a 66-year lease.

Out of the total 430 settlers who moved into Kampung Gatco, 280 were Indians, 120 Malays, and 30 Chinese. It is a rural location, just 60km south of the Pahang border. The nearest town is Bahau which is 40km away.

However, continuous mismanagement plunged Gatco into debt and it was declared bankrupt in 1983. Gatco failed to settle its loans with the 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.

Veerapan's story does not tally with the account given by Arutchelvan who said he is in possession of a significant number of statutory declarations signed by the settlers indicating that Harapan leaders had indeed promised eight acres.

Arutchelvan (photo) said that, at the time, Harapan leaders were seen at the many demonstrations, standing with the settlers to the extent of getting arrested.

"All these flashbacks cannot be erased from memory or swept under the carpet. The position taken then by these Harapan leaders was that the settlers were cheated and short-changed by the BN government which practised corruption and cronyism," he said.

Arutchelvan challenged Veerapan's statement that he never said 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. He could have apologised but arrogance seems to be a big problem for this first-term government," claimed Arutchelvan.

"I deny this," said Veerapan.

"PSM should stop playing politics on this issue. We managed to negotiate with Thamari and we have 1,206 acres (488ha) handed over which was never done before 2018.

"From this amount, we have to settle land distribution to nearly 200 settlers and buyers. We need to distribute the land equally and fairly to all the Gatco settlers.

"How can we make promises?" said Veerapan who said that a second batch of settlers would be issued titles on Dec 24.

He said he was fully committed to getting compensation for the settlers and buyers, adding that a significant majority of them had agreed to the settlement.

"Just a small portion of them are still disputing it," he said.

"When we were the opposition, we didn't have any documents or lists of settlers. We had limited information about them though we were fighting for their rights.

(We were) not fully aware of the situation and that the settlers had no legal standing according to the courts. Now we have gotten something after 42 years," he added.

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