KOTA KINABALU – Some 200 disgruntled villagers from three interior areas in Sabah gathered at the Land and Survey Department head office here today to demand an explanation on why they were denied their ancestral land.
The gathering led by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation also threatened to bring the matter to the higher-ups if the department refused to reply in 14 days.
The folks from six villages in Sapulut were denied their land titles, while applicants in Kg Montoki had not been issued theirs, and applications for land in Madai Baturung in Kunak were denied.
“We will bring this matter to the office of the chief minister if we have to,” said the NGO’s secretary-general Datuk Hishamuddin Hisham today, as he handed a memorandum to the department’s director Datuk Bernard Liew while demanding that it be forthcoming in the three cases.
The Vibes has reliably learnt that the communal title for the land in Sapulut was cancelled in 2018 and some 1,000 people from six villages – Kg Koyoon, Kg Kainggalan, Kg Tonomon, Kg Kukuamas, Kg Bigor, and Kg Bukokoh were supposed to be issued with native land titles.
The communal title scheme was meant to be scrapped under the previous state government led by Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal in 2018.
Yet, a recommendation letter was issued by the Chief Minister’s Office in July last year under the current administration led by Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor for the same purpose.
But a reply from the department in August the same year indicated the communal title for the said land had been reverted.
It is also reliably learnt that only 75 of the 245 participants in the communal land titles were from the villages.
The rest are from other districts, including those who reside in Kota Kinabalu.
On the status of land applications in Ranau’s Kg Montoki, Hisham noted that 200 of the villagers had spent the night at the Likas Bay Public Park – and slept under the roof of its public restroom – to attend today’s gathering.
The journey from Sapulut to Kota Kinabalu was over 200km and a portion of the route required them to go off-road.
One of the villagers told The Vibes that they had to come a day earlier as the road would be dangerously muddy and slippery if the weather was bad.
“Some of us drive on our own, while some have to charter a pick-up and pay hundreds of ringgit to come here, while others just carpooled to be present at this peaceful assembly,” said one of the villagers who only wished to be identified as Roland.
In the case of Kg Montoki, it is learnt that the application for the land was done in 1989 but the Land and Survey Department has yet to issue the native title.
A total of 37 people were detained by police after they got into a heated argument with a private firm believed to have obtained the said land.
Meanwhile, the villagers had applied for the land in Madai Baturung in the 1990s and have done so thrice since. But in 2016, according to the assistant collector of land and revenue, the application was cancelled.
The villagers were told to reapply for the land the same year and to do so they were told to pay RM2,000 per lot, which was paid to an officer named Simit Liwas.
Some 24 villagers paid the amount, while some were told to pay RM5,000 per lot.
In 2021, the re-application was again cancelled and the department did not explain why.
Some eight villagers were also remanded for four days following a commotion after they tried to claim the land, now held by a company.
Liew, who also met with the group to accept their memorandum, told reporters that he would meet the villagers during the fasting month.
He believed there must be some misunderstanding which could still be resolved with all parties.
“The state government will not be that heartless not to resolve the problems faced by the people,” said Liew as he vowed to respond to all the issues raised by the villagers. – The Vibes, March 21, 2023
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