What is the background to the Kampung Buah Pala dispute?
Kampung Buah Pala is a small village in Bukit Gelugor, Penang. It is inhabited mostly by Indians who are the descendants of plantation workers and cattlemen of the former Brown Estate. The village is popularly nicknamed ‘High Chaparral’ due to its elevated location on Bukit Gelugor. The land on which Kampung Buah Pala is located was given in trust to the government of the Straits Settlement by Helen Margaret Brown, the landowner of the Brown Estate, before returning to Britain in 1956. The land given in trust was then transferred to the state government which subsequently provided temporary occupation licenses (TOL) to the villagers who paid an annual TOL rental.
