Landowner Defends Gunung Lambak Site Clearing It S Private Agriculture Land

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Residents in Kluang, Johor were shocked when they saw parts of their famed landmark, Gunung Lambak, which is popular among locals and tourists, progressively being stripped of its vegetation over the past few months.
Some are concerned that the project, located on the slope of the mountain, could lead to landslides or trigger floods during the rainy season.
Questions have been raised about whether the hillside area is a national forest reserve and whether the government has done its job to intervene or monitor the project.
Malaysiakini found that this controversy was due to a long-lasting problem in Malaysia - poor land planning over the span of many decades.
The 92 acres on 17 plots of land adjacent to the Rengam Forest Reserve have been deemed private agricultural land since 1944, and are now owned by a local company called Steadfast Properties Sdn Bhd.
This is according to a land search document and a written reply provided by Johor menteri besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi to the state assembly.
One of Steadfast Properties shareholders, a person who identified himself as Mr Goh when contacted by Malaysiakini, said the plan was to convert the area into a durian plantation.
He argued that the agricultural land existed long before the surrounding residential area was built.
According to Goh, Steadfast Properties bought the land last year after checking with the Land Office and other government agencies that it was agricultural land on which durian trees are allowed to be planted.
"This is not forest reserve land but private agricultural land. This issue has been misunderstood by the people.
“The land title was first issued on Jan 25, 1944. We have checked the land use before we bought it, and the local council and Land Office said we can plant durian trees on the land - there is no land-use conversion involved," said Goh.
Goh claimed that only one of the 17 plots of the land reached 256m above sea level, while the remaining 16 plots were below 200m. The highest point of Gunung Lambak, which is about 2km from Kluang, is 510m above sea level.
He was told that rubber was planted in this area before the former landowner turned it into an oil palm plantation during the 1980s However, the land had been left idle for a long time, resulting in trees and other vegetation covering the area.
Goh said his company started site clearing work in April and planned to use 85 acres of the land for planting durian trees.
However, following the controversy, Steadfast Properties received a stop work order from the Kluang Municipal Council (MPK) on Aug 31. Goh said he was worried that the trees and branches that had been cleared may cause wildfire if the company was not allowed to remove them.
Goh claimed that private agricultural projects need not submit an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report or provide any documentation to the local council’s "one-stop centre" (OSC) by convention, but the company is willing to give full cooperation to MPK.
The stop-work notice was issued under the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974.
On May 29, TV9 reported that MPK issued an earlier stop-work order after the Kluang district officer Jamaludin A Hamid received complaints from the residents that the water flow was blocked by site-clearing works.
According to Jamaludin, the drainage and road works were carried out without approval and they may affect the integrity of the area.
Sinchew Daily previously reported that the residents living near the cleared site were worried that the durian project may cause landslides as the spacing of durian trees is wider and this may lead to water and soil erosion.
Proposed to build two retention ponds
"Save Our Lambak" banners were hung in several places at Gunung Lambak by hikers after the durian project was made public.
According to China Press, they hope the state government would intervene through a land swap or land requisition to prevent any possible ecosystem and environmental damage as well as landslides.
They saw the stop-work orders as a temporary solution since the land is legally owned and developed by a company.
To this, Goh explained that Steadfast Properties planned to build two retention ponds as safety measures.
In addition, short-term crops such as banana trees would be planted between the durian trees to improve soil and water retention as well as to generate income while waiting for the durian trees to grow, which may take about five to eight years.
The durian project has come under intense spotlight since the site-clearing work started in April this year.
Mengkibol assemblyperson Chew Chong Sin asked the state government to provide details of the land ownership and other particulars.
However, the state government only revealed the landowner’s name, its size and land PT numbers. It did not provide the chronology of the ownership of the land.
"As the landowners’ rights are stated in the National Land Code 1965, they have the right to develop or work on owned land in compliance with existing legal provisions,” read the written reply to the Johor state assembly dated June 23.
"The owner has been carrying out site-clearing works for agricultural purposes, but due to timber products that have not been approved for production permits, the Forestry Department has ordered related works to be stopped until permission is obtained."
On Sept 7, a local resident, Lim Kim Hai, was summoned by the police to give a statement after he shared photographs and videos of the cleared land on social media.
Kluang district police chief Bahrin Mohd Noh reportedly confirmed that the police had called Lim in for questioning after receiving a complaint. - Mkini

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