LAND ownership, worker shortage and high water tariffs are among the long-standing issues hampering Indian farmers in Cameron Highlands and they want Pakatan Harapan to resolve them now.

With the high cost of living and slowing economy, the farmers are trying their best to churn out good produce for local and international consumption but they need help.

Cameron Highlands Flower Association president P. Viswanathan said about 600 Indian families are farming and out of that number, 480 families are members of the Indian Farmers’ Association.

“The main problem is the temporary occupancy licence (TOL) issue. Even after 40 years, the Pahang government does not want to amend the TOL requirement because they don’t want to give us permanent land titles,” Viswanathan, 56, told The Malaysian Insight.

“Another issue is the water tariff which now stands at RM40 per acre monthly, which was introduced five years ago.

“Whether we get the water from the jungle or underground, we have to pay. This is a heavy burden for farmers.

“Some farmers spend RM50,000 to RM100,000 on water alone. We think it’s unreasonable. We want the fees to revert to RM20 per farm per year, regardless of the size.”

Another issue affecting them is traffic congestion during weekends and holidays, he said. This is worsened by hawkers carrying out businesses along the busy roads.

“The is the main cause of the congestion. Of course, it affects us as farmers. Let’s say we export flowers, sometimes in the traffic jam, it may take four hours to travel 10km. The authorities should relocate the hawkers to a permanent place with a lot of parking.”

He also hopes that TNB can reduce the electricity tariff for farmers growing flowers.

“The industry requires us to use electricity at night. TNB collects industrial rates from farmers. Normally, farmers in foreign countries pay income tax at a discount. I personally pay many taxes, including company, individual, quit rent, water tariffs and SST. How many taxes do we have to pay?”

Viswanathan said the previous Barisan Nasional government did not do much to ease their burden despite the farmers raising the issues over the years.

“The problems for farmers come from the state government and the other half is caused by the federal government. The road problems, water tariffs and electricity problems are federal, while land issue is the state government.

“The previous government did not assist the Indian Farmers’ Association. We have been facing problems for the last 15 years. We have complained to the state government, local council, MPs and ministers but nothing was solved.”

As the by-election looms, Viswanathan said the farmers are still undecided who to back.

“We are still unsure who we will vote for. We will give all the candidates a chance to see what they can do for the farmers, then we will decide. It’s just another week to go.”

The by-election is a four-cornered fight between PH/DAP’s M. Manogaran, Ramli Mohd Noor (BN) and independents Sallehudin Ab Talib and Wong Seng Yee.

Worker shortage

A farmer, who only wants to be known as Steven, said the problem of worker shortage has been around for years.

“Sometimes we don’t have enough workers because they run away.

“The government sends the workers but the workers don’t want to work here, so they run away. To apply for workers, we have to go to Putrajaya a few times. And it takes up a lot of our time,” he said.

Steven also complains about the high price of fertilisers and pesticides.

“The salesmen price it according to demand. If the government were to set fixed prices, it would be better.”

Steven also hit out at BN lawmakers in the constituency.

“During elections, they will visit Tanah Rata only, they rarely go to the other villages. If they had come here, we would have told them the problems but they only sent their party representatives. Whether they relayed our problems to the MP or not, we don’t know,” he said.

The previous government was good at listening to problems but didn’t solve them, he said.

Another farmer, G. Perumal, said Indian farmers are not happy with BN and are hoping for some improvement.

“Land is a state matter so the federal government cannot help, Pakatan Harapan can only pressure the state government.

“I understand the state government wants to borrow money from the federal government, so Pakatan can press the state government to release the TOL licence.” – January 22, 2019.