GUA MUSANG (Aug 14): Barisan Nasional (BN) will continue championing the land issues which have been plaguing the people in the south of Kelantan for decades, said veteran Umno leader Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Tengku Razaleigh, who is also Gua Musang Umno chief, said he did not want the problem to continue to plague the people, especially the settlers who spent years of their time and energy to explore the land only to be told that they could not pass it down to their children because they did not have a valid land title.

“Many of them believe that they have authority over the land that they cleared and worked on, but they don’t really have the grant or the land title that confirms their ownership of the land. We have to tackle this issue,” he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama on Tuesday.

The issue of the South Kelantan Development Authority (Kesedar) land ownership has been one of the hottest topics of discussion in the ongoing campaign for the Nenggiri by-election with PAS claiming that Kesedar had failed to complete the land transfer to the settlers.

However, Kesedar chairman Datuk Zawawi Othman said the land transfer process was quite time-consuming because it had to follow the procedures set by the state government.

Tengku Razaleigh, affectionately known as Ku Li, also questioned the state government's action of giving a large land grant to Kesedar after the premium was paid, but then seemingly unwilling to transfer the land titles to the settlers in small lots.

In fact, Ku Li said it was Umno, after winning in Kelantan in the 1978 General Election, that managed to reacquire 350,000 hectares of land in the south of Kelantan that was previously owned by a company, and established Kesedar to manage it.

“We negotiated day and night to reacquire this land...and since then, we have established Kesedar and brought Felda to Kelantan,” he said.

Ku Li, who is also BN election director for the Nenggiri by-election, said plans laid out by land development authorities, such as Felda and Kesedar, have brought many benefits to the economic development of settlers in the south of Kelantan, including Gua Musang.

“Besides getting an income from the rubber and oil palm plantations, the settlers’ children also received proper education right up to university level, and many of them became professionals and are working outside Kelantan,” he said.

According to Ku Li, after ruling Kelantan for 34 years since 1990, PAS has not changed much and the party may lose power if the people decide to change the state government.

“God does not let anything happen without an end. So, I believe that one day, PAS will also go down like any other (political) party...the people will decide,” he said.

The Nenggiri by-election this Saturday is a straight fight between Barisan Nasional candidate Mohd Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani, who is representing the Unity Government, and PAS candidate Mohd Rizwadi Ismail representing Perikatan Nasional.

It was called after Kelantan State Assembly Speaker Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah declared the seat vacant on June 19 because its assemblyman, Mohd Azizi Abu Naim, had ceased to be a member of Bersatu on June 13.

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