Through the introduction of Tan Sri Haji Mohd Noah bin Omar, I met our first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman to explain to him my concept of developing Gunung Ulu Kali into a holiday resort. It was a very pleasant meeting. After listening to me patiently, the Tunku said the Government had indeed wanted to develop Gunung Ulu Kali, but the project had not been implemented because of the constraints of time and money as well as the political situation then.

The Tunku told me that before any development could take place, a road had to be built from the foot of the mountain to the top. Based on preliminary surveys by the Public Works Department, it was estimated that the road would take about 15 years to build. The Tunku also disclosed that the Government had financial constraints as it was then engaged in Confrontation with Indonesia. If the Government were to spend a huge sum of money for the development of Gunung Ulu Kali, it would draw criticisms from the Opposition, and this would turn it into a political issue. To avoid this, the
Government thought it best to let the private sector undertake the project.

To the Tunku, it was obvious that my offer came at the most opportune time. He then asked me to prepare a project paper so that he could study it. Within a week I completed the report and handed it to the Tunku. He was full of praise after reading it and gave me clearance to go ahead with the project.

On April 27, 1965, Tan Sri Haji Mohd Noah and I set up a private company called Genting Highlands Sdn Berhad. Between the years 1965 and 1970, we made applications to the Pahang and Selangor Governments for 4,940 hectares and 1,110 hectares of freehold land respectively.

At the worksite, Tan Sri Lim was the labourer, 
project manager and engineer all in one.

FREEHOLD STATUS

With the recommendation of the Tunku, the Pahang Government promptly approved our application. But we encountered some problems with the Selangor Government.

Datuk Harun Idris, then the Selangor Mentri Besar, was only prepared to give the land on a 99-year lease. This had totally upset our plan. I then decided to appeal to Datuk Harun personally and explained to him my predicament.

At that meeting, I told him that Genting Sempah was a remote jungle area and it would take 30 to 40 years and huge investments to build roads, hotels, staff quarters and to install water and electricity supplies and other amenities there. If the Selangor Government could only issue a 99-year lease, we would have to surrender the land to the Government almost as soon as the development was completed.

I emphasised that if Selangor did not accede to our request for a freehold title, I would have no choice but to develop only the land located on the Pahang side of the border, thereby resulting in Pahang having yet another hill resort. I pointed out that there were already many holiday resorts in Pahang such as Cameron Highlands, Fraser's Hill and the many beaches facing the South China Sea.

Selangor, on the other hand, could only boast of the muddy beach in Morib. Once Genting Highlands was added to the list of resorts in Pahang, Selangor would be lagging far behind in terms of tourist attractions.

Datuk Harun was eventually convinced by my explanation and recommended to the State Government to grant freehold status to the land we applied for.