PUTRAJAYA, Sept 2 ― Parti Putra Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) today urged the Pahang government to take back the thousands of hectares in Raub land being used to grow durians from farmers operating without licences and gazette them as Malay reserves instead.

Its vice-president Datuk Hamidah Osman said doing so could help reverse the diminishing acreage of Malay reserve land nationwide, which her party has been championing for.

“One of the crusades of Putra is to make sure that Malay reserve land is returned, which is supposed to be at 50 per cent [from the total land reserves] but today it is at only 12 per cent.

“So we ask these 4,400 hectares be converted into Malay reserve land and be given maybe to army veterans or whoever is qualified, because there are provisions that allow for this,” she told reporters after filing a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission here.

Hamidah alleged possible corruption in the agricultural cultivation of the Raub lands by local farmers, many who do not have a licence to operate from the Pahang government.

When it was suggested to her that the cultivated land could be converted into forest reserves instead, Hamidah reiterated her stand on increasing Malay reserves in the country.

She noted the ongoing land dispute between the Raub farmers and the state is now with the courts, referring to the judicial review application challenging a recent eviction order.

“We do not want them to just be evicted, but also for action to be taken against them,” she said, referring to the farmers.

She said it was up to the Pahang government to decide whether it wanted to convert the cultivated farmland into Malay reserves or forest reserves as that was what the law provided.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/09/02/take-back-disputed-raub-farmlands-and-make-them-malay-reserves-putra-tells/1899431