Dayaks do not trust BN over NCR land?
By The Broken Shield
KUCHING: In the coming state election, issues regarding native customary rights land are certain to be exploited by both the Opposition and Barisan Nasional parties.
Already the government has taken the initial step in order to gain advantage of the situation when Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced an allocation of RM20 million to carry out as a “first step” to do perimeter survey of some 1.5 million hectares of NCR land in the state. Starting from the end of the year, it is an obvious part of the government’s strategy in order to minimize its exploitation by the Opposition.
The Opposition Pakatan Rakyat is aware of the government’s strategy in trying to win back the hearts and minds of the people especially the natives who own the NCR land. But the natives are no longer fool as the problems have been there for about three decades. Nor do they believe what the BN leaders have promised them any more.
Now they start to ask questions and want to know more about the government’s plan. For example, what exactly does Najib mean by “as a first step to do perimeter survey of NCR land”? Does he mean the communal land boundary, that is, what the Ibans described as the “antara” or “garis menoa” (communal land boundary) of a longhouse or between the longhouses?
“If that is the case, it includes the longhouse area, their burial ground, tembawai (old longhouse sites), temuda and kebun (farming) areas and the pulau (communal forests) areas as well.
“That is what the courts have decided on the extent or boundary of the NCR land of the longhouse and that is also what we have asked to be gazetted all along,” said NCR land lawyer Harrison Ngau.
For the Baram district, there are two books called, “Register of Land Boundaries” kept at the District Office at Marudi which recorded in sketch maps or descriptions the communal land boundaries between the longhouses in Baram which records started during the time of the Brookes and British Colonial Administrations in Sarawak.
“I have filed in court for a copy of the Registers in one of my cases, but the trial of that case has not started. The Sarawak Government argues that the recording of the land boundaries in the Register is only an administrative act which does not have any legal force or is not evidence of the Government accepting, recognising or granting NCR over the lands within the land boundaries recorded.
”The Registers have to be read together with the Secretariat Circular No. 12 of 1939 issued by the then Chief Secretary to the Rajah which, inter alia, directed that Village Council has to be established in the villages or longhouses to assist the Ketua Kampung to administer the village or longhouse and to determine or fix, record and report the communal land boundary of the longhouse to the District Office.
In the Suai, Niah and Sibuti areas, there is a map or plan in the Land and Survey Department in Miri called “Composite Plan Showing Distribution of Native Farming Land in Suai Niah and Sibuti” which records the communal land boundaries of the longhouses in the said areas and which records was compiled by the District Office Miri and Niah also during the Brookes and British Administrations. I have a copy of the map/plan and am using it in my cases now pending trial.
”I have also seen similar records of communal land boundaries shown to me by one or two longhouses in Sebauh, Bintulu which they said they obtained from the Sub-District Office in Sebauh.
”Thus, if Najib and the Sarawak Government are really serious and sincere in surveying and gazetting the perimeter of NCR lands, they, in my view should refer to and gazette the communal land boundaries based on these records of communal land boundaries. In cases where the communal land boundaries have not been recorded, then survey and gazette the communal land boundaries which have existed or been established between the longhouses. The survey should be jointly carried out by the Land and Survey Dept and the longhouse residents,” Harrison said.
But if Najib and the Sarawak Government only survey and gazette perimeter of temuda areas, that is, temuda based on aerial photos taken after 1.1.1958 (that is based on government legal counsel, J.C. Fong’s interpretation of what is NCR), their proposal will not resolve the NCR problem and that would be contrary to what the courts have decided and it is also not what we wanted or have asked them to do.
In any case, will Najib and the Sarawak Government dare to revoke or withdraw logging licences, Licences For Planted Forests and leases over NCR lands issued to big companies for oil palm plantations which were all signed, approved or issued by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and Awang Tengah both as First and Second Ministers of Planning and Resource Management respectively?
This will be the RM100 million question!
Awang Tengah in his statement in the last few days has also stated that the Land and Survey will first determine the boundary between NCR land and State land. Only then will the perimeter survey of NCR land as announced by Najib be surveyed on the ground.
