This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 9, 2015.

IPOH: At least 20 Mambang Di Awan farmers are still insisting that Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir should intervene in their eviction dispute with Syarikat Bidara Istimewa Sdn Bhd, despite having met with the developer to resolve their differences.

Spokesman for the farmers Steven Kong said the developer’s solution of offering housing lots on the site earmarked for development was not suitable for the farmers.

“The farmers’ main concern is losing their livelihood when they are evicted because they will have no more land to farm. Many of them are elderly and only know farming as a way to earn a living,” he said.

“Giving them a house will not help them sustain themselves,” Kong told reporters after handing a memorandum detailing the farmers’ requests to the state secretariat here on Monday.

Kong, who is also the Perak Freshwater Fish Breeders’ Association president, said he wanted state executive councillor Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon, who had helped to organise the farmers’ meeting with the developer last month, to convey their request to Zambry.

“We hope the state government can offer a better alternative, such as suitable farming plots for them to work on,” he said.

In the memorandum, the group also requested Mah to visit the land, spanning some 49ha, which the farmers have been tilling for between 10 and 55 years.

“We want him to see the place for himself and the state could consider retaining it as farmland instead of alienating it for development.”

Kong said the farmers, together with DAP Malim Nawar assemblyman Leong Cheok Keng and representatives from Syarikat Bidara Istimewa have had two meetings in October and November.

In the meetings, Syarikat Bidara Istimewa had offered the farmers lots for between one and two houses each as compensation and given them seven months to move out if they agreed to the terms.

Kong, however, said the lots were not suitable for the farmers and were too small to be converted to farmland.

Mah said he would meet with the developer to discuss the matter further but urged the farmers to consider the offer seriously.

“The state has helped to mediate with the developer and now the farmers’ group has to decide what is in their best interests.

“I worry that if they do not consider this current offer, they may get embroiled in a legal tussle and lose everything,” said Mah. — The Malaysian Insider