LAND IS A PROBLEM.....WHAT CAN BE DONE !!!

Land so they say is an asset of the family.
The question is....is it ?
Look at the situation nowadays....
Gone are the days or the days are numbered when a father would keep the land for his children and grandchildren to live on and to work on.
Today...when asked the question of what are they going to do with the land ? Fathers would prefer to develop the land and get the money while they are still alive to enjoy the fruits of their toil.

That is from one angle.

From the other angle...you would have a totally different picture where the father keeps the land for the children and grandchildren and so forth. This is well and good.

However with the Muslim law in place, it also says that when the parents is no longer around, the properties or assets would be divided using the law of Fara'id. Thus making the land divisible according to the said law. This is being fair to all parties concern. However this division of land will keep on going to be pass down to the respective offsprings for generations to come. So what will happen ?

What will happen is that as the years go by, the land will be divided between families and sub-families till it becomes uneconomical for the land to be worked on or to be toiled. Thus we will be creating millions of hectares of land that is not being used (in Bahasa Malaysia we call it TANAH TERBIAR). These land are not land that is sub-quality soil or land that is too steep but good land which people just don't do any work on the land maybe because it is too small to be economical to work on, or there are family disputes that won't allow the kins to work on his land.

This is a loss in opportunity in agricultural production both for the family and for the nation.

THIS IS A TIME OF THINKING OUT OF THE BOX.....

In the rural areas, the land owners are predominantly Malays and they are mostly farmers.
Life is not getting any easier for everybody....let alone the farmers.
As the family numbers multiplies and the parents are no longer around....the land will be downsized for each of the subsequent new " landlords "....
How will they survive with all the rising cost of living.
Essential goods and consumables are not getting any cheaper as days go by...HOW WILL THEY SURVIVE ???

THIS IS THE TIME TO BE NON-CONVENTIONAL
and having
THE POLITICAL WILL TO DO SO

1) After 53 years of independence the nation has prospered under the same Government but what have we done to protect the farmers ? Is giving the fertilizer subsidy helping ? Is giving the diesel subsidy helping ?
To me the answer is not really as we do not really have a program for the farmers to be self reliant and self sustaining.
2) Is it not right now for the Government to seriously look into the program of LAND REFORMATION ???
3) If we don't address this situation now....we will by the end of each year have an increase of more and more unused and uncultivated land (TANAH TERBIAR).
4) However since this involves a policy involving the whole country....it will have to go through a lengthy process of going through the Parliament to be gazetted. Even though it is a lengthy process it still must start somewhere to get it going for the sake of the farming community in general.
5) As an example, all land gazetted as "important" farming land will be registered with Agriculture/Land Office to amalgamate them as individual parcel entities and land owners will own a share of the entity (company/cooperative).
6) The said entity will be managed by knowledgable and professional personals to make the project a success. Land owners or their children may work for the entity if found suitable for that purpose. Otherwise they can find other alternative jobs or create a new job for himself with whatever skills they have or will acquire.

The situation today is that there is a sense of false hope by the youth in the rural areas. Their father have the land.....but how much ? And upon the demise of the parents how many square feet of the land will actually belong to each individual ???

The wants of the youth today is no different then everybody else, nice clothes, nice motorbike or a car if possible, nice wife, nice house, having extras to continue enjoying.
But is this possible if they live in this dream and false hope.
Is this possible if the Government don't interfere in such matters as the LAND REFORMATION.

DRASTIC as it may seem but we have to think of the future of the agrarian society and the Malays in general.

In this way....the land will still belong to the "FAMILY" and the whole family will benefit for years to come PLUS the land will be economically cultivated for food production.