KUALA LUMPUR – It will take 104 years to fully resolve Sarawakians’ long-standing issue of native customary rights (NCR) in relation to land, said Julau MP Larry Sng.
The PKR man, debating Budget 2021 in Parliament yesterday, said this is based on his calculation that only 8,653ha of NCR land is surveyed annually.
“Additionally, for as long as they (remaining land) are not gazetted, the customary land will be encroached on by timber and palm oil companies.”
He said the state government announced that 46,113ha of individual lots had been surveyed by November 13, with only 17,306ha done in two years.
There is still 906,887ha of land yet to be surveyed, which comes under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code, he said.
“What about customary land that has not been gazetted?”
Sng said his research showed that this means the survey covered only 4.83% of individual customary lots.
Acknowledging the RM41 million allocation in Budget 2021 for the NCR progamme in Sabah and Sarawak, he said he had sought the sum for his state as the matter is “among the big issues faced by the indigenous communities” living in remote areas.
“We are chasing time because many of the older generation have left us. They are knowledgeable about communal land boundaries, territorial rights and communal forest reserves. This effort must be expedited before they all leave us.”
He questioned the Sarawak government’s commitment to resolving the NCR issue.
“The issues of gazetting and land grants have been resolved in the peninsula, which has a bigger land mass and a larger population.” – The Vibes, November 17, 2020
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