Extracted from Malaysiakini

Sabah natives see red over land woes
Tony Thien

Oct 25, 05 2:02pm

A leading non-governmental organisation (NGO) representative in Sabah has urged the state government to set up a commission of inquiry to check the serious land problems affecting indigenous groups there.

The problems are due to the issuance of many large country leases to politically-connected individuals and companies from Peninsular Malaysia.

Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan president Patrick Sindu said many of Sabah’s 52 ethnic groups, including the Kadazandusun, Murut and Rumus, are becoming increasingly disgruntled with the present state government leaders, including elected representatives from their own communities.

“Even the Kadazandusun, one of the largest ethnic tribes in Sabah, are becoming disenchanted with Deputy Chief Minister and Rural Development Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan, a leader of the Kadazandusun-based Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS),” he told malaysiakini.

Sindu is also a committee member of the Sabah Environment Protection Association and Kadazandusun Cultural Association.

For many years, he said, the native communities themselves had been applying unsuccessfully for titles to their native customary rights (NCR) land in their respective districts such as Penampang, Keningau, Tongot, Nubawan, Kuamut in Kinabatangan and Kudat.

Instead, large country leases of 10,000 and 20,000 acres were issued to big companies and politically-connected individuals from Peninsular Malaysia.

Legacy problem

Sindu described the existing land problems as ‘very serious’ and suggested that a special meeting of the state legislative assembly be also held to discuss the matter.

He said the land problem is a legacy problem - inherited by present Chief Minister Musa Aman and his cabinet - arising from decisions of leaders in the pre- and post-PBS administration.

“There are many lopsided agreements that the government entered into in the past with companies, and the problem now faced by the state government is it could end up facing a series of litigation from these companies seeking millions in compensation if the agreements are either changed or revoked,” he added.

The problems faced by NCR landowners in at least 11 districts in Sabah were highlighted recently by a Kadazandusun-based NGO called Partners of Communities Organisation (Pacos).

Sindu said he had raised the matter frequently with elected representatives from the various ethnic communities.

According to him, they admitted that they could not do much as long as they are within the ruling Barisan Nasional.

Based on the feedbacks obtained by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), about 80 percent of the complaints it received were related to land issues.

Some of the complainants have been waiting for land titles for up to 30 years, after submitting their applications to the Land and Survey Department.

“What is perplexing is that there are cases of local people who submitted land applications earlier but did not get the title whereas applications made later for the same land by big companies were approved,” noted Sindu.