FORMER Selangor menteri besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim was irresponsible for seizing land from Felda Bukit Cerakah settlers’ in Ijok, said his successor Azmin Ali.

Azmin, who replaced Khalid as menteri besar in 2015, said his administration had successfully returned the rights of the settlers after the developer failed to compensate them and build new houses for them.

“When Khalid took over he could not resolve the land issue which took place 20 years ago. Seizing their land was not a solution.

“What Khalid had done was irresponsible because it did not resolve the settlers’ problems,” said Azmin when met at Institute Jantung Negara today.

The land issue in Ijok was brought up by Barisan Nasional communications and strategy director Rahman Dahlan on February 15, who accused Azmin’s administration of impropriety in settling the issue.

Khalid’s administration had initially taken two developers to court before Azmin in 2015 returned the land to the original developer for them to sell it and compensate the settlers as well as build terrace house for them.

Together with the Alam Mutiara and Alam Utama Bukit Cerakah action committee, Selangor decided that the setters will be compensated for the land and would not have to pay anything for the terrace houses.

Azmin challenged BN leaders to refer the case to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and said he was willing to cooperate with them.

Azmin said this was an attempt by BN to defame him because it had no intentions of helping the settlers.

“MACC has investigated this last year and we are ready to provide additional information if necessary. When the truth is revealed it will vindicate me. The duty of the state government is to resolve the settlers’ issue and not side with the developer.

“It’s proven today that Umno does want to resolve the settlers’ issues,” he added.

A settlers’ representative told The Malaysian Insight that they had rejected Khalid’s suggestion as the court process would take too long.

Committee chairman Omar Ali Bashah had questioned the timing of BN’s complaint which began after the Selangor state government had resolved the problem.

Another group of former settlers, partial to BN, had asked Azmin to pay for higher compensation.

The group’s representative Mohd Fadzil Ibrahim said they wanted higher compensation because there were inconsistencies in the agreement including the price of the house (RM200,00) and the size of the house to be built would be smaller than the initial agreement in 2000. – February 26, 2018.