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Extracted
from Malaysiakini
S’wak
govt told to get moving on land survey
Mar 29,
The
This comes in the wake of long-running tension over land use, particularly
where economic or development activities have allegedly encroached into NCL.
Indigenous peoples have taken their complaints to the Human Rights Commission
of Malaysia (Suhakam), while about 100 cases are before the courts in the
state.
Baru said a survey would clearly demarcate what constitutes NCL as well as
facilitate the issuance of land titles to the rightful claimants.
“The government could allocate RM1 million annually for the survey work which
should be carried out in stages, starting with some 5,000 longhouses from Lundu
at one end of
Subsequent stages could cover the land ‘below the window of the longhouse’, the
field outside the longhouse, all temuda
land (cultivated secondary forests) and
pulau (reserve) and pemakai
menoa (communal) lands.
At a two-day seminar on NCL, organised by Suhakam and which began in Kuching
yesterday, state assistant land development minister Francis Harden said NCL
made up about 22 percent of the land area in Sarawak, or about 1.5 million
hectares.
Commenting on this, Baru said the state government will have to indicate where
such land is situated. This is because, under the Land Surveyors Ordinance
passed four years ago, the authorities will only recognise surveys by
registered professional surveyors.
He also said the state should instruct companies that hold provisional licences
for oil palm plantation or timber extraction to stop their activities where
there are legal disputes over the status of the land. This is to prevent
evidence being destroyed.
The government must make sure there is no NCL within designated areas before
issuing provisional leases or timber licences to companies, he added.
State denial
According to Suhakam officials, the majority of complaints
lodged with the Kuching office last year were linked to NCL and involved
the activities of plantation and timber companies.
‘In apparent frustration over the lack of action by the authorities, the
aggrieved natives have taken their problems to Suhakam,” an official said.
The seminar is to allow various state authorities - Attorney-General’s
Chambers, the lands and surveys department and Sarawak Forestry Corporation -
to interact with native landowners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to
resolve the issues.
Several NGO
representatives claimed that the government has been delaying the survey on
NCL, but a land department officer denied this during the seminar, saying the
government had issued “a few thousand titles” in Miri and Mukah among other
locations.
This took participants, especially Dayak-based NGOs and participants, by
surprise.
One NGO representative said that, when he went to the divisional land office to
ask for a title to his land, he was told there was arahan dari atas (directives from higher up) not to issue
titles for NCL.
Sarawak Dayak Youth Association secretary Nicholas Mujah told malaysiakini that a new case on
overlapping claims over NCL is due to be heard in a Kuching court tomorrow. Two
plantation companies have allegedly encroached into NCL as part of their
project site of 11,000 hectares.
“Another case in Lundu that affects about a dozen Dayak villages is threatening
to become an explosive issue if not resolved quickly,” he claimed.
Yet another case, also in Lundu, involves a privately-owned silkworm farm whose
operations are said to have affected Dayak and Malay villages in the vicinity.
Borneo Research Institute programme co-ordinator Mark Bujang said current
conflicts between natives and corporations are worse than the problems
experienced with logging companies in the 1970s and 1980s.
“During logging they only saw trees being cut down, but in plantation
activities they see their land being taken away,” he added.