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Extracted
from Malaysiakini
Supp wants
native land registered
Tony
Thien
Dec 11,
A fairer representation of all races in the civil service was
among the matters raised and agreed at the Sarawak United People's Party
special delegates conference (SDC) yesterday.
The party also urged the
The other issues covered at the one-day closed-door conference were Chinese
education matters, especially financial support for independent Chinese schools
in the state and the land lease renewal controversies.
The civil service was one of the issues incorporated in the Chinese-based
party's so-called Forward Plan that was tabled and debated by about 550
delegates from some 35 branches at the special meeting.
Party deputy president Law Hieng Ding told malaysiakini
today that he proposed that a monitoring unit be set up for this purpose so
that the distribution of posts in the civil service would reflect a better
picture of the country's racial make-up.
The almost one million strong civil service is largely dominated - by almost 80
percent - by Malaysian bumiputera employees.
Risking
rejection
Many delegate spoke quite emotionally on all the issues, urging the party to
take more concrete steps to deal with them, or risk being labelled as an
ineffective spokesman for the community in the government.
At a press conference, the party leaders, headed by party
president Dr George Chan, told reporters that the present state government's
policy on the renewal of land leases, especially those affecting the urban
residents, was unclear and was still causing a great deal of concern among the
people.
The delegates not only wanted a guarantee that the land leases would be
renewed, especially those with family houses built on them, but also the leases
should be extended for a 99-year-period or at the very least 60 years and at
greatly reduced premium rates to make it affordable to the people.
The party leaders said if the party should fail to allay the fears and concerns
of the thousands of lease-holders, the party was in danger of finding its
candidates rejected by voters in the parliamentary elections.
NCR
survey
On NCR land, the party said there appeared to be a perception among the rural
population that the government did not recognize native customary rights and
that dozens of litigation cases were now before the court for determination on
NCR land disputes.
It called on the government to register NCR land estimated to be in the region
of 1.5 million hectares in order to allay the fears of the natives against
thinking the government was taking their NCR land away, converting them to
mixed zone land, and alienating them to plantation companies.
It also urged the authorities concerned to expedite the ground survey of NCR
land and to issue titles to the landowners.
Law said all the proposals tabled during the conference would be studied by a
special committee and fine-tuned before forwarding the necessary
recommendations to the state government.