Extracted from Malaysiakini

Extracted from Malaysiakini

Four-prong strategy for land rights

Tony Thien
Oct 1, 07 12:32pm

The Dayak community, which makes up nearly 50 percent of Sarawak’s population, is under serious threat of losing their native customary rights (NCR) to land unless it adopts a four-prong strategy.

Orang Ulu activist and lawyer Harrison Ngau said the community will have to:

Use legal means by taking their NCR claims to court;
Use political means by using their vote in electing a government or representative willing to speak up for them;
Stand firmly on rights to land; and
Be prepared to fight to the end to defend their rights.

Harrison, the former Member of Parliament for Baram, told a longhouse gathering at the 13-door Rumah Busang in Ulu Niah, Miri, on Saturday that aggrieved NCR landowners must be prepared to go to court if they feel their rights have been ignored.

“Vote out the Barisan Nasional if you want the policies to change. There is no use in returning the same people to power at every election when they support the same policies,” he said.

Harrison has represented many NCR land claimants in several parts of Sarawak whose rights have either been affected by commercial logging or plantation activities.

He was speaking at the start of a two-day Iban ceremony - Gawai Kelingkan Bujang Berani - conducted by the People’s Organisation for Secured Indigenous Life. Participants prayed for strength and motivation in defending the community’s rights to ancestral land.

About 250 people were present, including Miri-based Borneo Research Institute co-ordinator Mark Bujang; Kuching-based Sarawak Dayak National Union president Nicholas Bawin; Kuching-based Sarawak Dayak Iban Association representative Jacob Emang; and an Orang Asli group from Peninsular Malaysia.

State PKR liaison committee chief Dominique Ng Kim Ho, legal adviser See Chee How, liaison committee member Dr Francis Ngu, publicity chief Daniel Gerinang also attended the event.

Long-held rights

Ng said it could not be denied that Iban native rights to land have existed since before written statutes were enacted.

He criticised Dayak elected representatives in the state legislative assembly for failing to speak out for their community’s rights and interests.

“When I first walked into the state legislative assembly after being elected as MP, I saw a lot of Dayak representatives,” he said.

He claimed that none dared to speak out about the community’s complaints, especially on the important issue of land.

Bawin echoed his views, adding that “our existence will be meaningless if we allow our rights to be ignored”.

He said he agreed with the community’s view that it is in real danger of losing NCR to land, as large plots of land are leased out by the state government to big companies or politically-connected individuals.

‘The authorities must address the issues urgently and dispel the perception that the natives are being deprived of land on which they have settled for generations,” he noted.

Tuai Rumah Busang Anak Ngandang, 74, welcomed the guests, saying he hoped they could work together to alleviate the plight of the Dayaks.

In September 1999, he and his son were among 19 people arrested and later charged in connection with the death of three individuals linked to a plantation company operating in Ulu Niah. One person was convicted and sentenced to jail for manslaughter.

Several members of the group attended the ceremony.