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Suhakam probes plight of Ibans in Bintulu
Tony Thien
Aug 23,
Three Suhakam commissioners turned up in a
longhouse near Bintulu today to investigate complaints involving native
customary rights (NCR) land of the Iban dwellers there.
They met Ibans of the 64-door Rumah Nor Nyawai at Sekalai, about 60km from
Bintulu, to look into their complaint that the authorities have issued three
provisional land leases to a private company on what they claim to be NCR land.
Led by Sarawak-based
commissioner Dr Mohamad Hirman Ritom Abdullah, they met the tuai rumah (headman) Nor Nyawai and his
people near a makeshift hut located off Km27 Miri-Bintulu Road, on the boundary
next to what they call their pemakai
menoa (territorial domain), which has been affirmed in court as NCR
land.
The other two were Kuala Lumpur-based commissioners N Siva Subramaniam and
Khalid Ibrahim. Also present were Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia)
secretary-general Nicholas Munjah and several NGO officials from Kuching.
The Land & Survey Department had issued three provisional leases covering a
total area of 2,800 hectares for a proposed new township project to Tatau Land
Sdn Bhd, in 2002 on a 99-year lease. The land is for multi-purpose utilisation,
including residential, commercial and industrial use.
And the company has also charged the land to a Malaysian merchant bank for RM35
million.
Utilise
the land
Tuai Rumah Nor told the Suhakam commissioners that the
Ibans have settled on the land for many generations, and that the land
alienated to the company without any compensation whatsoever to them is part of
their pemakai menoa.
They were therefore
surprised and shocked when a private company sent them an eviction notice.
However, their longhouse, about two hours walk from KM32m Jalan Samarakan off
the
The Ibans have sought the advice of their lawyers and the tuai rumah told Malaysiakini that they might apply for
a court injunction to stop the company from moving in.
The Iban group chief co-ordinator Lani Tanek said Suhakam had requested for all
documents to support their claim to the NCR land.
Meanwhile, a tuai rumah from a nearby Bintulu area urged the Iban community in
the area to stand firm and be united in defending their rights to the land.
Headman Siba Bunsu (left) from M25,
Miri-Bintulu, added that they should never allow themselves to be split by
private interests as this would be detrimental to their struggle.
Speaking at the site, he urged Rumah Nor residents to
follow the footsteps of his longhouse by starting a community-based self-help
smallholder oil palm scheme on their NCR land.
“People are less likely to come and take away your land if they see the land is
planted,” he told them.
Siba said more than 13,000 young oil palm plants have been planted on about 100
acres of land involving 24 Iban families. The sizes of this smallholding range
from 300 to 2000 plants for a family. Harvesting is expected in 2010.
Sadia's Nicholas told the villagers their plight did not escape the attention
of the nation with it having been highlighted by online media, especially Malaysiakini.
He also said the matter would also be brought up at an international forum on
indigenous land rights in
‘Land is everything’
Meanwhile, DAP Kidurong state assemblyperson Chiew Chin Sing said the
government should respect the rights of the natives to their NCR land.
The problem is NCR lands are non titled lands, he said, suggesting that the
government should immediately carry out a survey and issue titles to avoid this
kind of problems.
“Similar problems are so rampant in
He said land is a very sensitive
issue to the natives as “land is everything to them.”
“If they lose the land, they lose everything. To say it is not theirs in any
way is to deny the fact they have cultivated the land for so many generations,
and creating unnecessary animosity,” Chiew added.
Meanwhile, the case of the 22 squatter families who have received eviction
notices for squatting on private land at KM2, Jalan Sultan Iskandar, Bintulu,
has been resolved with the intervention of Suhakam.
At a meeting on Wednesday in Bintulu, the three Suhakam commissioners met
representatives of the squatter families after they received eviction notices
from the land-owner.
They have now been given an extended six-month grace period to move out and the
authorities have agreed to look for alternative housing for the squatters.
Originally
there were 82 families on the land, but after the eviction notices were served
many have moved away, leaving the 22 families.