THE New Villages represent a special settlement landscape in Malaysia forming the roots of the Chinese social, economic, cultural and religious ways of life. They are also synonymous to MCA, a party that has its outreach, touch points and network in every New Village in the country.
Prior to 1970, there were no special Government allocation for New Village development and these settlements were the “neglected orphans” with poor infrastructure and social amenities compared to nearby townships. In the Eighth Malaysia Plan, the allocation of New Village development was increased from RM45 mil to RM107.6 mil.
Between 2000 and 2005, then MCA president, Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting, in his capacity as Housing and Local Government Minister, managed to secure an additional RM209 mil to the original New Village development fund of RM117.46 mil, thus delivering RM326.55 mil for that period.
The welfare, social amenities and improved infrastructures are critically important for the continued wellbeing of the New Village residents. The intended socio-economic transformation of the New Villages requires a smart partnership from various stakeholders; the Government, non-governmental organisations (NGO), private sector and local communities.
And MCA is the only political party having a close connection with all these stakeholders, with a history of success!
In attending to the New Villages and residents, MCA has a network of New Village Development Officers (PKP) and village headman (Ketua Masyarakat). At the state level, the state executive councillor designated to be in charge of the Chinese villages have always been a MCA state assemblyman, since there is no specific department, body of staff to administer or be responsible for the New Villages.
This was so until MCA lost their state seats one after another, creating a vacuum resulting in the many issues of land titles and tenure, agriculture activities, animal husbandry, cottage and small-scale industries, youth and rural unemployment etc left unresolved or unattended to.
Further, the urbanisation of new villages had caused environmental problems resulting in flash floods when it rains. Out of 450 new villages, 233 or 52% experienced floods.
However, this has improved over the years as a result of better care, sewerage services and solid waste disposal systems under the passionate stewardship of MCA Ministers helming the Housing and Local Government Ministry.
This has since changed when MCA lost badly in the 2013 General Election. The post of Housing and Local Government Minister was taken over by Umno. The new Minister continued to maintain and adopt MCA’s infrastructure and network to assist the New Villages anyway. As the saying goes, “When it comes to New Villages, MCA knows best!”. The entire eco-system, care and administration have been closely related and connected to MCA.
Malaysia Baru created “disconnect”
This changed when Pakatan Harapan came into power and MCA was left with only one MP. DAP had won and wrested control of the Government with its whopping 42 MPs. But DAP had deemed it fit to abandon the Housing and Local Government Ministry, neglecting the welfare of the mainly Chinese community in the New Villages despite obtaining nearly 90% of the villagers’ support.
Despite having 42 MPs, DAP did not have the outreach, expertise or experience to fill the vacuum of PKP or village headman created by MCA’s ouster as the former does not have the grassroot organisation that MCA has, despite their popular support at the national level.
When the Pakatan Harapan Government collapsed as a result of infighting between Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim over the premiership, Perikatan Nasional took over the Government in March last year.
MCA once again found themselves back in the Government and attempted to correct the “break” in the chain of administration or connection with the New Village stakeholders. MCA quickly appointed an official to liaise with the Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin, to revert back to the old structure or representation to enable a more effective intervention process to resolve problems faced by the New Villages but failed.
As of today, when Perikatan collapsed, there is an obvious disconnect between the Government under Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan, in respect of the New Villages administration. Many New Village residents have approached me, collectively indicating of a sense of abandonment since Malaysia Baru arrived in 2018.
Therefore, I would like to seize this opportunity to call upon the newly minted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to rectify this sense of neglect, akin to being a step-child, amongst the New Villagers as a result of the changes under Malaysia Baru.
In fact, the prime minister’s constituency of Bera itself has many New Villages. Hence, he will be able to comprehend and emphatise with the frustrations of the New Villagers when their network was disconnected or disrupted.
Not all that is new is good and not everything old is bad. In the case of New Villages, we need a Minister or at least a deputy who can emphatise, understand and comprehend the needs and expectations of the settlers there. Mr Prime Minister, please do the needful! – Aug 24, 2021.
Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker is the former Deputy National Unity Minister and vice president of MCA.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
