Bian: Is Taib dumb or ill advised?

The Sarawak PKR chief says the CM should read the Land Code properly and realise that there indeed have been land grabs.

KUCHING: Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud publicly revealed his ignorance of the law when he said that there had been no land grabs in Sarawak, according to state PKR chief Baru Bian, a lawyer well known for his advocacy of native customary rights (NCRs).

Commenting on a statement that Taib made last Wednesday, he said the chief minister either was unable to understand the Sarawak Land Code or had been misled by his advisers.

“I advise him and his advisers to study carefully the provisions of the Land Code, especially Section 15 Clause 1,” Bian said today.

According to the clause, NCR land cannot be alienated or used for a public purpose until all NCRs have been surrendered or terminated or after compensations have been made.

Last Wednesday, Taib claimed that all land yet to be granted to the people is state land and the government has never had a reason to grab land belonging to the people.

“As we all know,” the chief minister said, “most development starts from land. Unfortunately, some quarters try to mislead the people so that they will oppose these projects for fear that the government will take away their land.

“Why should the government grab people’s land when all the land that has yet to be granted to the people belongs to the government?”

Bian pointed out that he and other lawyers had won several cases against the alienation of NCR land and the granting of such land to big companies.

“My law firm alone has won more than 10 cases,” he said.

“NCR lands have no titles. A lot of people don’t understand that because they have no title, they are always subject to proof of occupation.

“There is a list of NCR lands being alienated under provisional leases, timber licences, and quarry licences.”

“Taib is wrong, and what he said is not true, because there exist NCR lands within the state land.

“The government can lease only state land. This is the legal concept that people don’t understand.”

He said his court victories were clear proof that NCR lands were alienated by the government and given to those with no right to them.

“This is what we call land grab,” he said.

“Taib is making a sweeping and misleading statement. He is either wrongly advised or he does not know the Land Code.

“I want him to read Section 15 of the Land Code. Like in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, of which Malaysia is a signatory, there must be prior consultation and consent from the natives before their land is taken for a public purpose.”

Asked whether his debate with Taib on the NCR land issue was still on, Bian said: “I don’t think he will accept it. And as far as we are concerned, we will fight the government in court.

“But the fastest and most effective way for us is to change the government.”

--Free Malaysia Today

State government: Protector or robber of NCR land?

Source: The Borneo Post, 4 March 2009

(click picture to enlarge)

Lubok Antu MP William Nyallau, first time elected representative, thinks that the State government is the protector of NCR land. He says that he wants NCR land to “remain as such so that they can be best protected by the government”.

And he does not want NCR land to be delineated, surveyed and issued titles, despite the Ibans begging for the government to survey their land for the past 45 years.

Maybe Nyallau do not fear or do not know Awang Tengah Ali Hassan, who is the most powerful Second minister of resource planning and management, but tens of thousands of Dayaks who own NCR land do know and are dead scared of Awang Tengah. They even call him Awang TANAH, who says that all untitled lands including NCR land are State land.

“Nyallau speaks through his nose,” said a PRS supreme council member who did not share Nyallau’s proposal.

Nyallau’s reasoning is that if such lands are to be surveyed and given titles, the Ibans will sell their land.

“How many titled lands have been sold off since the 1980s? Check with the Land and Survey department,” he said to The Borneo Post dated 4 March 2009 (see newscutting above).

But what is wrong with selling your land if you need the money to send your children for higher education or for business. Chinese, Malays and others are doing the same thing.

Indeed it is better to sell your land and be paid the price agreeable to both sides, rather than your NCR land being taken away and are sold to big companies for oil palm plantations. This is what happens now. Up to now more than half of 4 million NCR lands have been taken away for the planting oil palm.

Not only the land owners do not receive a cent out of their land, they are being criminalized for defending their land, while others have resorted to take legal actions against the government and companies to claim compensations.

Now coming back to the question: Is the State government protector or robber of State land?

The voters of Batang Ai who will be casting their votes for the by-election on 7 April will be able to answer this question. - The Broken Shield

Source: www.thebrokenshield.blogspot.com