‘Pakatan policies in Perak have failed’
Perak MCA accuses it of insincerity and cumbersome red tape in its state land lease policies, but DAP says it’s a move to hide BN’s own misgivings.
(Free Malaysia Today) – A Perak MCA leader accused Pakatan Rakyat of deception in its land title policies, calling them sweeteners aimed at concealing the bloc’s greediness during its short reign in the state.
The state’s MCA Youth chief Mah Hang Soon said the small number of land titles issued under the Pakatan administration reflected the red tape that spooked applications.
Mah, the exco for health, local government and environment portfolio, claimed fees and charges for freehold titles as earlier announced by Pakatan were exorbitant.
“Many could not afford the premiums. Records show only 3.46% of Chinese new villagers had applied for land leases at that time. This indicates that Pakatan’s policy was a financial burden,” he said.
The majority of Perak’s Chinese new villagers are from the middle and low income groups and could not afford to pay high land premiums set by the Pakatan government, said Mah.
He added that under Pakatan, only 2,041 house owners (3.46%) had applied for their land titles and only 21 titles were issued.
“Among all the 75,075 Kampung Muhibbah houses, only 0.6% applied but no titles were issued,” said Mah.
Land ownership is a key issue for Chinese voters and the present BN government, which “ousted” Pakatan in early 2009, has often used it to regain lost support.
Perak MCA has struggled to win back support of the majority electorate after the infamous BN “power grab”, and in a desperate fight for survival had exploited the land issue.
Whitewash
Former state exco and the state’s DAP secretary Nga Kor Ming called the accusation by Mah a “blatant lie” aimed at hiding BN’s misgivings on the land title issue.
The BN grants home owners a 99-year lease title which Mah said would enable Chinese new villagers to renew their land titles automatically 10 times continuously for 990 years.
It also claims to provide a 90% discount on land premiums to home owners who requested for renewal of the land lease, including those living in new villages, “kampungs and taman’s”.
But Nga said with BN, house owners have to pay land premiums 10 times as opposed to Pakatan’s “perpetual title” policy which means owners pay premiums only once with an 80% discount.
