Extracted from Malaysiakini

 

Graves bulldozed to ‘destroy’ NCR proof
Tony Thien

 

Iban villagers from 11 longhouses in Pantu, Sri Aman Division, have claimed that the burial grounds of their ancestors are deliberately being desecrated by a plantation company.

According to them, this is an attempt to remove an important piece of evidence that proves their native customary right (NCR) over the land.

 

“Not only will burial grounds be bulldozed, they have already been bulldozed!” claimed their spokesperson Jacob Emang (left) today.

He was responding to Barisan Nasional (BN) state assemblyperson for Bukit Begunan, Mong Dagang, who reportedly said that native burial sites will not be destroyed.

“The government will ensure that the development of NCR land respects the burial grounds,” he added.

Mong also lashed out at those opposed to development of NCR land who ‘would stop at nothing’ to cast unfounded fears among the natives.

Destroying evidence

However, Emang painted a different scenario.

He claimed that workers of a peninsular Malaysia-based company had planted some 50 oil palm trees at the Kampung Tekuyong/Uban graveyard.

They had allegedly tried to do the same at the Pendam Angkong cemetery in Bukit Tunggal but were stopped with help from the district officer, Land and Survey Department and the police.

Emang said the company was also fined by the district office.

According to him, the workers were also prevented from demolishing a third burial ground in Aping.

He said all these incidents took place this year, with the latest two months ago.

Their lawyer, Dominique Ng Kim Ho, who visited the sites, said the villagers suspect that the burial sites are deliberately being targeted.

“It is one of the proofs required of the natives to establish customary rights on land. If the evidence is removed, the claimants might have a harder time to prove NCR,” he added.

Under Section (2)(b) of the Sarawak Land Code, one of the methods to establish recognition of NCR on land is 'the use of land for a burial ground or shrine’.

Restrictive option

The plantation company is in a joint venture with a state agency, Sarawak Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA), to develop an oil palm plantation on 3,900 hectares of NCR land in the Pantu area.

Plantable area in the Pantu area covers about 7,000 hectares, but it is learnt that because many longhouses have not agreed to participate in the joint venture on a 60:30:10 equity formula (company 60 percent, NCR landowners 30 percent and LCDA 10 percent), the area has been reduced to less than 4,000 hectares.

The Ibans in Aping, which is adjacent to the area being developed, have launched their own smallholders oil palm scheme, with 300 hectares already cleared and planted.

The scheme involves some 37 families and has not received any government subsidies.

BN MP for Sri Aman Jimmy Donald, whose constituency covers Pantu, told malaysiakini today that NCR landowners have a choice whether to partner with investors or to start an oil palm scheme on their own on NCR land.

“There is no compulsion,” he said.

Commenting on this, Emang said the 60:30:10 equity formula is restrictive, rigid and does not give NCR landowners room to negotiate or bargain.

“We should have a choice to decide whether to go with government land agencies like LCDA, Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) and the Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Felcra) and accept only the best terms in joint ventures, if NCR landowners do not intend to go on their own to develop their land.

"We do not see the logic in LCDA having the 10 percent as managing agent if we ourselves have the capacity and the resources to do the same, and when we are given no say in the management inspite of holding 30 percent equity in the joint venture,” he added.