KOTA KINABALU – Kota Belud-based social and political activist Kanul Gindol has proposed the Sabah government to allocate part of the RM200 million under the state’s Budget 2021 to establish special district committees, which will monitor and advise indigenous communities to develop their land.
Kanul called for a new government policy to ensure prompt and proactive action be taken by relevant agencies, such as the Public Works and Water Departments, and Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd.
“The Sabah Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry, as well as district offices and grassroots political appointees must work together to assist indigenous communities,” he said in conjunction with a World Soil Day event held in Kota Belud recently.
“(Indigenous) committees can engage experts on good agricultural practice, soil management and tourism, and when they have decided to focus on a particular venture, they can tap into state funds and build roads and other basic amenities to get the community going.”
Deprived from such amenities, indigenous communities are calling on the new Sabah government to be more proactive in developing policies dealing with their well-being.
They said existing policies, such as programmes on land use, have become obsolete, and with lacking basic necessities, like roads, electricity and treated water, their efforts on cultivation or tourism are bound to fail.
Kanul said native land needs to be expanded as the population of indigenous communities is growing, adding that the state government must provide them with more areas.
He proposed the Sabah government to demand the return of land – including the military facility in Kota Belud, called Camp Paradise, and land held by the Sabah Forestry Development Authority in the same district – held by certain agencies, companies or authorities
Kanul said Sabah’s indigenous people could improve their economic standing if basic amenities are made accessible to them, however, he added, the irony is that many of thier underdeveloped villages have good internet service, but no road connectivity.
He said the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda) has built temporary earth roads for machines to assist villagers to plant rubber trees.
“But not all villagers want to plant rubber trees, and rubber trees are not the only plant or project that could raise the income of these people,” Kanul said, adding that the state government could emulate or learn from Risda on how to assist these communities in Sabah. – The Vibes, December 9, 2020.
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