IPOH: An activist from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) sustained injuries, including a broken tooth, after being allegedly assaulted by a state government department officer during a protest against land encroachment involving farmers in Kanthan, Chemor, here today.
The commotion is said to have occurred when PSM activists and farmers attempted to obstruct personnel from the Ipoh Lands and Mines Department from entering the agricultural area to continue with the eviction, an incident that was also widely shared on social media.
PSM secretary-general, A Sivarajan, stated in a press release that in addition to the injured individual, four others, including PSM's Dr. Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, 68, were detained by the police during the protest regarding farmers in the Tambun parliamentary constituency.
"Since this morning, the farmers in Khantan within the Tambun parliamentary constituency, represented by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as their elected representative, have not relented against the actions of the enforcers from the Ipoh Lands and Mines Department and the police, who were attempting to evict them.
"During the raid on the farm this morning, officers from the Lands and Mines Department forcefully pushed PSM activist, Chong Yee Shan, causing her to fall and suffer a broken tooth as well as severe bleeding.
"However, the Lands and Mines Department officer in question only left the said activist alone and continued to advance to destroy the farm," he said in a statement today.
He mentioned that, besides Jeyakumar, the other three individuals detained are three men aged between 30 and 53, with two of them being party members, while the other is a farmer.
"In Kanthan, there are over 200 farmers cultivating various crops for the local market. Since 2012, these farmers have been promised a leasing agreement by the Perak State Development Corporation at an alternative location and offered two acres of land for a 30-year lease.
"However, the Perak government has failed to fulfil that promise and is now forcibly evicting these farmers using Section 425 of the National Land Code.
"We request immediate intervention by the prime minister himself, considering this issue is occurring in the area he represents as the member of parliament for Tambun, to resolve this issue and ensure food security is safeguarded," he added.
Meanwhile, it is understood that the Ipoh district police will issue a media statement on the matter shortly.
In a statement, Malaysian Food Security And Sovereignty Forum condemned the aggression against the PSM activists by the Ipoh Lands and Mines Department officers.
"We strongly condemn the actions of the officers from the Perak (Ipoh) Land and Mines Department who resorted to violence against an activist and the arrest of three other activists and a farmer by the police during the forced eviction and destruction of farms in Kanthan, Ipoh, this morning.
"This action clearly displays a thuggish, inhumane, and ungrateful attitude towards the dedicated service of farmers in Malaysia, who are at the forefront of ensuring the nation's food security. The area in question involves a 132-acre farm that produces an average of 50 tonnes of vegetables daily, worked on by over 200 farmers.
"This area has been managed by local farmers since the 1970s as part of the Green Book Policy initiated by Tun Abdul Razak and has served as a food production area for the state of Perak. Since 2021, the Perak State Development Corporation has been attempting to evict these farmers for the development of the Perak Hi-Tech Park industrial area, which will be established by several companies from Kuala Lumpur," it read.
On April 13 last year, the media reported that two men, also PSM activists, were arrested by police in the Kanthan Industrial Area, Chemor, after ignoring warnings from the police not to incite the public to obstruct land clearance work and land surveys in the area, which was understood to be owned by the Perak State Development Corporation but was unlawfully managed by farmers in the area.