Gatco settlers feel abandoned

Kampung Serampang Indah is located in Jempol Negeri Sembilan some 40km from Bahau and about 60km to its North is the border town of Triang in Pahang.

This was once a sugar cane plantation in a land resettlement scheme of more than 4,000 acres. Settlers here are former NUPW (National Union of Plantation workers) members and estate workers who paid RM 7500.00 in 1979 to be part of this scheme.

On their first sugar harvest season, the sugar processing factory which was owned by GATCO was closed due to financial difficulties. Then rubber trees were introduced but the settlers were not allocated with the 10 acres of land that they had been promised earlier.

This problem has not been solved until today and the settlers are left without any options as the land that was supposed to belong to them has been bought over by a private company without their consent and knowledge.
Today, settlers are worried that the private company that bought over the land will chase them out at anytime and their almost 30 years efforts and dream to own a land will be shattered. Most of the settlers here do not know on what will happen to them or where will they go if they are chased away from this settlement.

Video by Arvind Raj
Narrated by Megan Radford