KOTA KINABALU – Civil servants are allegedly sidelining individual land applications in favour of big companies looking to secure land across Sabah, Pintasan assemblyman Fairuz Renddan told the state assembly today.
Fairuz said the situation has allegedly been going on for decades and has deprived locals of access to land not only in his constituency, but even in other districts such as Telupid in the interior and Kawang in Sabah’s southwestern region.
The Bersatu politician said he had seen the situation for himself when attending Land Use Committee (LUC) meetings, where land applications by big companies were expedited while individual applications were not even included for deliberation.
“We need to be fair. Yet when it came to land applications by individuals, they were postponed,” Fairuz said in his policy debate speech at the Sabah assembly.
He did not name the state authority allegedly involved.
“This is what people have been saying; the rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer.”
Last month, a group of indigenous oil palm plantation smallholders alleged that they were harassed by thugs they claimed were hired by a plantation firm to chase them off a 143ha plot of land in Lahad Datu.
The smallholders said they had applied for ownership of the land four times under the state’s native customary rights since 2005, but were rejected at every attempt. – The Vibes, March 22, 2022
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