KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak has expressed concern over the ‘quarrels’ between native land owners and the state government over claims of native customary rights land.
“The quarrels between native land owners are not a big problem; it can be settled. What concern us are the quarrels between the native land owners and the state government.
“The quarrels over what constitutes NCR land and what is state land, “said PRS President James Masing.
Laterally, there are hundreds of claims and counter claims over the status of land between the land owners and the government.
So far more than 200 cases of land disputes are now pending hearing in the court.
Explaining PRS’ position after chairing its supreme council meeting on Saturday (20 Nov), Masing believed that the current exercise by the state government to survey NCR land and State land is a move in the right direction.
“Once we know which one is NCR land and which one is state land, and then the issue of conflict between the NCR land owners and the government will not arise anymore,” said Masing, who is also the Land Development Minister.
“We are concerned, because we are a party that represents the native communities and we want to ensure that the security of their land must be protected,” he said.
Masing said that one of the things they discussed in their meeting was a land report presented by its Land committee which had made a number of recommendations and observance.
“What I found out the most interesting in the report is that the Common Law takes precedence over the Land Code. This Common Law has the support of the Federal Constitution and the International Law.
“Common Law means the acquisition of land by traditional means. At the moment we may have slight problems that the Land Code does engender.
“How best we put them together so that we do not in conflict with the Common Law. And we have to tread on it carefully,” he said, adding that some of the amendments to the Land Code seemed to be in conflict with the Common Law.
“As a party representing the rural communities, this is our concern. We are not saying that the government is wrong. Let us synchronize the conflict.
“We must look into this seriously,” he added.
“The quarrels between native land owners are not a big problem; it can be settled. What concern us are the quarrels between the native land owners and the state government.
“The quarrels over what constitutes NCR land and what is state land, “said PRS President James Masing.
Laterally, there are hundreds of claims and counter claims over the status of land between the land owners and the government.
So far more than 200 cases of land disputes are now pending hearing in the court.
Explaining PRS’ position after chairing its supreme council meeting on Saturday (20 Nov), Masing believed that the current exercise by the state government to survey NCR land and State land is a move in the right direction.
“Once we know which one is NCR land and which one is state land, and then the issue of conflict between the NCR land owners and the government will not arise anymore,” said Masing, who is also the Land Development Minister.
“We are concerned, because we are a party that represents the native communities and we want to ensure that the security of their land must be protected,” he said.
Masing said that one of the things they discussed in their meeting was a land report presented by its Land committee which had made a number of recommendations and observance.
“What I found out the most interesting in the report is that the Common Law takes precedence over the Land Code. This Common Law has the support of the Federal Constitution and the International Law.
“Common Law means the acquisition of land by traditional means. At the moment we may have slight problems that the Land Code does engender.
“How best we put them together so that we do not in conflict with the Common Law. And we have to tread on it carefully,” he said, adding that some of the amendments to the Land Code seemed to be in conflict with the Common Law.
“As a party representing the rural communities, this is our concern. We are not saying that the government is wrong. Let us synchronize the conflict.
“We must look into this seriously,” he added.
On the proposals recommended by the report, Masing said: “We have a long discussion on this report and how best we can develop NCR land. We have to look at it in terms of the concept and the proposal from the legal point of the land code that governs the NCR land.
“On the concept and the legal aspect, what I found the most interesting is that thereis a lot of inadequacy that the NCRland concept that we have.
“And they did the comparison of the NCR land concept with SALCRA. Even though SALCRA may not give that much as compared with FELCRA or FELDA, yet according to the report more people are agreeable to SALCRA than with the NCR land development that we have.
“As I told you before that my ministry is looking for ways and means as to how best we can improve NCR land development and giving more beneficiaries to the land owners,” he said.
