PM outflanked as Chinese win land title rights
Like their father and grandfather before them, Lim Ah Tong and his brother Lim Sak Teow survive on a three-hectare orchard of guava, lemons and mangoes.
Until now they have not owned the land, but have just been the occupiers who could be evicted at short notice. It changed for the brothers and 1 million other Malaysian-Chinese after the opposition's success in the March 8 polls in Perak state.
'For 40 years we have been applying for titles,' Lim Sak Teow, 42, said at his Bidor farm. 'Our dreams have come true, we are very thankful.'
'We had lived fearing eviction but now we feel safe,' said Lim Ah Tong, 52, who also rears ornamental fish for sale in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Hundreds of thousands of farmers in the northern state are overjoyed by the Islamist-led state government's decision on Friday to issue titles to farmers. Many of them are descendants of former communists who were forcibly resettled in rural areas five decades ago.
The offer has undercut Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's ruling National Front, which had long promised to resolve the problem.
Before previous elections, a few hundred farmers would be given land titles. This was the case in February when Mr Abdullah went to Bidor, 200km north of the capital, to give titles to 870 farmers.
A voter backlash saw Mr Abdullah lose five states, including Perak, and the opposition win a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
'It is a shame to force people to resettle and then neglect them for 50 years and evict them as you like,' said Perak chief minister Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin. 'With titles they will no longer feel like aliens in their own country.' Mr Nizar, a leader in the Islamic Parti Islam se-Malaysia, added: 'The policy to issue titles is in keeping with the teachings of Islam to be just and fair to all citizens irrespective of race and religion.'
Many original pre-war farmers lived on jungle fringes and were sympathisers of communist insurgents. They were forcibly resettled from 1950 as part of a plan to defeat the communist insurgency.
Called the Briggs Plan, after Sir Harold Briggs, the British general who oversaw its implementation, about 540,000 people, nearly all ethnic Chinese, were resettled in west coast villages. They are a main source of support for opposition parties.
The plan worked and the communists were defeated. But the descendants of the resettled people were frequently evicted as land values rose.
Political analysts say the Perak government, which has a two-seat majority, has with 'one master stroke' created a base of support among the Chinese villagers.
Counter-insurgency
Number of people resettled under the anti-communist Briggs Plan 540,000
