MAKING HEROES OUT OF TRESSPASSERS

It is always very difficult for me to understand how some people can turn an outright illegal act into something worth supported, and make us, the legally right party looked as the guilty ones.

They use all sorts of means to justify their acts. They use the villagers, the politicians, the media to strengthen their plot. They know that they have committed something wrong, but they do not care.

Imagine, they have blown up the story, from a case of only a handful (may be two or three people) of illegal tresspassers into one that consists of a plan to develop and divide the oil palm plantation into a few acres each to many people of the village.

Overnight, the illegal personal project became something heroic, something that would benefit hundreds of villagers!

It is also sad that the local political leader/s take the bite and support them. They told me that they were scared of losing important votes in the coming election. They went as far as telling me that the project, no matter how good it would be, would be of no use if they lost the seat!

All is not lost yet. But I am kind of fed up with it all and seriously thinking to just let it go like that.

What is the use of us fighting hard to make sure the project go as planned while they are fighting back, employing all avenues to see that their illegal act be legalized.

But, the selected poultry farmers, ninteen of them, are all eager and ready to come in and start their project. A few of them already have financial support to build modern closed house poultry sheds.

Our intention is clear - to develop a permanent poultry production estate there so that Pahang will one day be one of the most important poultry producers in the nation.

We still have ample land for it. The industry is still small here and unlike in the west coast where it is already congested and very difficult to exapand further.

All the potential is here. So why spoil it just for the sake of a few irresponsible men to make money out of the government's land!