ABSTRACT
Land reform laws have, however, been drafted in nearly all Asian countries, particularly during the 1950s, the first decade of independence for most. Asia's problems, though very different from those of Latin America, are no less intractable, for agrarian development in general and land policy in particular faces the additional crucial factor of population pressure. Asia has a fifth of the world's land area but over half its population. Most Asian peasants are economically, socially and politically crushed by a small minority of leading personalities who combine key functions as landowners, money-lenders, traders, employers and local officials. Land redistribution can be compared to a major surgical operation, tenancy reform to a delicate internal cure. Redistribution of plantation land in West Malaysia promoted land speculation and the emergence of a landlord class, actual cultivation being done by tenants rather than small owners.
