Friday, June 20, 2008

Sarawak NCR Land: The heavy price of progress

It is sad and frustrating to read in Malaysiakini (see http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/84757) about the Kenyahs desperately protesting against logging at their communal lands (which are NCR land).
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I had written about this NCR challenge earlier (see Sarawak: Ningkan & Native Lands at http://ctchoolaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/sarawak-ningkan-native-lands.html).
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The basic issue about NCR lands, which cost Stephen Kalong Ningkan the Chief Minister's post, is that it is a putative legal claim for the natives. There is no clear legal right. The Malaysian courts have doggedly stuck to a very narrow interpretation of the Sarawak Land Code.
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The courts' interpretation is that Section 5(3) and (4) of the Sarawak Land Code (SLC), which authorises the Minister of Planning and Resource Management to declare, by Gazette Notification that the extinguishment of native customary rights (NCR) over state land, and whatever compensation to be paid to the native claimants of such NCR, are valid and constitutional. For example read this report at Rengah Sarawak: http://www.rengah.c2o.org/news/article.php?identifer=de0601t&subject=6.
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In other words, all the Minister needs to do is to issue a Land (Extinguishment of Native Customary Rights) Direction and, literally at the stroke of the pen, the natives' claim is gone. Poof!
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My point is, why is CONSULTATION such a problem in Malaysia? Why is there so much insolence and arrogance when exercising political and executive powers? What is the hurry to fell trees for timber and clear jungles for oil palm planting? What is the hurry?
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How would these politicians and towkays feel if some natives went into any property belonging to the politician or towkay and start planting vegetables and fruit trees and rear poultry and build a dwelling? Obviously they will pull out their TITLE DEED and lodge a Police report for criminal trespass.
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Ah! There it is! The natives living in NCR lands have NO TITLE DEED! So, how can they complain about trespass or poor compensation?
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And, a Title Deed requires an OFFICIAL mapping and survey exercise. That means only the State Land & Mines Department can do it. And, so far, they won't.
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I am not a Sarawak native. But I am sure that most natives want progress too just like any other Malaysian. But, is it wrong to want progress with REASONABLE terms and conditions set by the natives? Has the compensation for taking NCR lands been REASONABLE?
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And, what is so wrong about respecting those native communities that do not want logging and oil palm plantation encroachment?
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That should be the true spirit of the Federal Constitution and the right to property in Article 13 of the Constitution.
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What is being done now and, the way in which it is done, may be legally right (only because the courts wrongly say so), but MORALLY it is very wrong.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We must surely have all realised that unless you change the Government, that is the PBB or rather Taib Mahmud-led Barisan Nasional Government in Sarawak, it is very unlikely the laws relating to NCR of the Dayaks will be favourable.
Yes, to the Dayaks I say this, if you are still complaining, you deserve the Government you get.
So I say be courageous, be brave, and see what March 8,2008 has brought about in Peninsular Malaysia, how little things are beginningto change in States like Perak, Selangor and Penang such as land rents,etc
When Pakatan Rakyat form theGovernment ,I say when because it is only a matter oftime and people want CHANGE (look at what the PRS member Beginda Minda's statement widely reported in Malaysiakini and carried also by many blogs and newspapers, inspite of attempts by certain quarters to play it down, and that CHANGE will come even before the State Election.
Wait.

Anonymous said...

Let's not give up on our NCR land.It's only the work of one man.
And it is easy to remove that man, either through natural illness when life must expire or, as Beginda Minda stated, is forced out of office through People Power. Taib Mahmud, the Chief Minister for 27 years, is too old tochange' if you heard what he said at the Agro Fest it sent shivers down your file -- he confirmed what most people have suspected all along: He dislikes the Dayak so much that he laughs when they (the Dayaks) claim NCR land. This is because he has taken much of their land to give to towkays and to his relatives and friends who feed him.
What do we do with people like that? Like Beginda, we ask him to step down. Umbas.