Perak to go on issuing freehold titles

New Straits Times, 24 December 2008

IPOH: Land offices in the state have been instructed to continue accepting land conversion applications from residents of planned and new villages.

These offices have also been told to disregard orders from the Federal Government to the contrary.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin said the instruction was given yesterday to clarify doubts among district land administrators following newspaper reports that said the National Land Council viewed the state's land conversion exercise as having contradicted the National Land Code.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who chaired the council meeting on Tuesday, reportedly said the land conversion exercise could not be done without approval from the council.

Najib's announcement created uncertainty at many land offices yesterday morning, resulting in some of them declining to accept land conversion applications.
But by early afternoon, the state government had moved to allay their doubts by telling them that the state government was the only authority which could decide on land matters in Perak.

"As far as statutory provisions are concerned, the DPM's announcement has no effect on our land administrators. So we told them to go ahead and accept the applications," Nizar said after chairing Perak Water Board meeting late yesterday.

He said, under the Federal Constitution, the state government was the rightful authority to decide on land matters, stressing that the Federal Government had no business interfering in state land-related affairs.

"In the absence of any legal impediments, the state government can lawfully proceed to implement the proposed conversion of leasehold titles into freehold ones."

Nizar, who was joined by senior executive councillor Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham at the press conference, said the state government would however send a report to the National Land Council regarding the land conversion exercise.