Tuesday, November 2

Baru criticises district officers

PKR Sarawak has criticised certain District Officers who advise native customary rights land owners to withdraw their court cases if they want their land to be surveyed and to be issued titles.

“This sort of advice is misleading and deceiving the people,” said its chairman, Baru Bian to reporters.

“I receive several reports from the NCR land owners regarding certain district officers who advise them to withdraw their court cases against the government if they want their land to be surveyed and to be issued titles.

“I told the land owners not to withdraw their court cases as the district officers are misleading and deceiving them,”
said Bian, who is a prominent NCR land lawyer.

Currently there are more than 200 cases before the High Court of NCR land owners suing the government for allegedly grabbing their land and leasing them to cronies and families of politicians for the planting of oil palm.

Of the number, Bian is representing land owners in more than 170 cases.

“Don’t listen to these district officers or other civil servants; they are playing politics,” he said, pointing out that in the end they may lose all their land.

“Even you may lose your temuda (farm land), pulau galau (communal forests) and pemakai menua (territorial domain). The government’s lawyers have been arguing in court that the government does not recognise all these lands as NCR land.

“For temuda to be considered as NCR land, it must be planted with fruit trees and cash crops as evident of occupation.

“The government even refuses to adhere to the Apex Court decision that defines NCR land means temuda, communal forests and territorial domain,”
he said.

Bian said that the on-going so-called perimeter survey is politically motivated to coincide with the next state election.

“The amount of RM 20 million announced by (Prime Minister) Najib Tun Razak is to pacify the angry land owners. When the election is over, the perimeter survey will also cease,” he said.

And the whole problems will be back to square one.

Bian said that the only way to solve this (land grabbing) problem is to change the state government.

“Pakatan Rakyat has a definite and clear policy on NCR lands and other lands. Should PR form the next state government, the NCR lands that have been grabbed by the government will be returned to their rightful owners,” he said.

7 comments:

Banting said...

All rubbish and nonsense! Are DOs dare to come to court and make a declaration to issue land titles to the landowners within stipulated periods as suggested by them.

I suggest, the District Officers should call for in-service training to officers in the Land and Survey Department and the Forestry Department not to issue provisional leases to logging and plantation companies without doing details studies. Advice the officers from these two departments to go down and inspect the area for themselves and not depend on maps, causing the companies to be unaware that they were logging and planting on customary land. Advice the officers in these two departments not to approve any application for provisional lease by merely sitting in the office, instead they should go to the area to get the true picture form the local people. This is how series of conflicts between the companies and the landowners arise, prompting the latter to sue the government.

Even Awang Tengah is blaming contractors appointed by provisional lease holders for the encroachment problem in some native customary land. He said even though it was obvious that they could not enter NCL, they just bulldozed their way into the area. Yes, what Awang Tengah said is very true.

apai irau said...

Those DOs must know their functions.Their duties may either expressly stipulated or discretionary,but neither of these tasks allow them to mislead or cheat the rakyat.If they are not certain of their advises or suggestion better don't give any advises.If they are not sure of the outcome,do not suggest and if they are unsure of the consequences better do not give a guarantee.You are there being paid with rakyats' money.

Anonymous said...

Yes Awang Tengah is blaming the contractors for going into the NCR land, because of the coming election; he needs Dayaks support in his constituency. After the election, then he will blame the Dayaks.

Tiyung Dayak said...

To Banting:

I agree! People like AB should be instructed by his boss LTS to go for ground inspection instead of wasting money sitting under the banyan tree or go for “seafaring” to Kalimantan!

Mata Kuching said...

The thief minister of UMNO controlled Sarawak is one of the richest man in the world. The current PM is fast catching up as one at least through his wife, the ugly but powerful fatty mama who sits in for the PM on official functions whenever the PM was indisposed. The DPM and the entire cabinet of Najib have no ministerial power and even the DPM has been reduced to a chief usher when the Australian PM and USA Secretary of State visited Malaysia few days ago. Rosmah was in command and gave speeches on behalf of his politically unfit husband and PM of UMNO and for UMNOputras and tycoons.

History has shown that countries run by the powerful wife of its PM or President eventually collapsed and went bankrupt like in the Phillipines under Imelda Marcos and Evita Peron in Argentina. Here in Sarawak and Sabah, 70 % of the people who lived just 20 km away from the city to the interior are living in poverty and deprived of decent and basic amenities and having their lands encroached into and taken away by the same people who walk in the corridor of power..the government they have voted for the past 47 years.

With the passing of PBB initiated white paper to protect and preserve the ill gotten wealth of the thief minister of UMNO controlled Sarawak, any person, NGO or political party who are telling the truth and educating Sarawakians of their rights, defending the rights of the marginalised and oppressed will be deemed to be creating havocs and endangering racial instability and security in Sarawak. All Sarawakians must not allow our government to become the like of Myanmar or North Korea to strike fear, intimidate and subject us into total subservience.

From now on we shall strike back and strike harder and deeper into the interior constituencies held by UMNO controlled BN. We must uproot Taib Mahmud’s and UMNO controlled BN’s authoritarian regime.

Anonymous said...

I have my personal experience with this DO and he sent his officers to meet me and ask that my kampong people not to take this gov't to court. They said court case will make this gov't malu and if this gov't lost in election then we dayaks will suffer. This what these officers said but I told them that its they who are stealing our land and if these don't stop we all will be landless.
And I told them that all my longhouse people will vote PR.

Anonymous said...

All your complaints no use. See the buy-election with yellow envelope? Money will speak louder. All simple-minded folks will blindly vote BN again.
You see!