I refer to the Malaysiakini report Najib: Perak has no free hand in giving land titles .

Najib Razak should check with Professor Dr Nik Mohd. Zain ,a former director-general of Land and Mines and whose PhD is in land law and admisitration on his statement that the Perak government cannot implement its proposal to change the land tenure of New Villages and planned village lots without the consent of the National Land Council.

It is true that the state authority cannot by law change the tenure status of any piece of land that has already been alienated. In fact Circular No 19/1980 issued by the federal director-general of Land and Mines dated Jan 24, 1980 and signed by Nasruddin Bahari, clarifies this matter.

The circular stresses the rationale for this is that the land does not belong to the state anymore. The state authority can only impose whatever conditions fr the land, including its tenure, only when it makes a decision to alienate the land.

However, it is pretty clear that the state authority can alter the land tenure status of the land if the legal owner of the land surrenders the land to the state authority thus changing the legal status of the land from an alienated land to state land.

The former owner of the land can then submit an application to the state authority which will then approve the alienation of the land to him or her imposing whatever conditions it deems reasonable including awarding the former owner a freehold title.

For this purpose, the federal government either through the National Land Council or the office of the federal director-general of Land and Mines cannot do anything to stop the state government from doing so.

Now, it should be understood that the function of the National Land Council - whose membership includes all the menteri besar and chief ministers and chaired by the deputy prime minister - is only advisory, similar to the function of the National Council of Islamic Affairs.

This council was established to advise, clarify and coordinate land administration policies in Malaysia. It has no legal powers to enforce its decisions.

What happened before was that since all the state governments were controlled by the same party or a coalition of parties, the federal government was able to get state compliance by politically twisting the state government’s arms.

My comments here are based on my experience. Some of them might be wrong and therefore stand for correction.