Native land Foundation needed: Star
Published on: Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Star Sabah Chief, Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan proposed that the Government establish a Native Land Foundation to assist natives develop their Native Title (NT) lands.The land use category from "agriculture" should also be extended to include "industrial" and "commercial" while remaining as NT lands. "This will help maintain native title ownerships which are dwindling due to conversion to Country Lease titles.
ADVERTISEMENT
"This Native Land Foundation can also be tasked with owning the 30 per cent ownership of lands reserved for natives which are imposed on landowners of larger pieces of land but abused through manipulation and use of nominees to circumvent the law and land title conditions. "Large plantation companies should also be required to allocate 30 per cent of their land holdings to this Foundation," he said.Dr Jeffrey said the State Government should also establish a Land Tribunal which has been recommended and supported by many government leaders. He said the Land Tribunal can serve as a mechanism to resolve land disputes especially for the natives where their lands and ancestral lands are alienated to outsiders, without having to go through the often costly and lengthy court process.
ADVERTISEMENT
"It is pointless and meaningless for the Sabah Government to expect the natives to fight for their land rights in court especially against large corporations when the Sabah Government can easily protect and prevent native lands from falling into the hands of non-Sabahans and non-natives," he said.To further protect natives, he said the Native Affairs Unit should be upgraded into a full-fledged "Majlis Adat Anak Negeri" (Native Customs Council) befitting the status of natives as equal to Malays in Malaya as set out in the Federal Constitution.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The natives of Sabah do not and should not belong to the "Others" category as practised now by the federal and Sabah governments."The Sabah Government can start to safeguard native land rights by extending the investigations of fake Native Certificates and dubiously issued certificates and a review of ownership of all NT lands to verify that they are genuinely held by natives. "Otherwise, in the longer term, the natives will find themselves to be squatters in their own land, as is happening now throughout Sabah," he said.In this respect, the State Government and the Land and Survey Department should ensure only qualified natives are registered as native landowners and not to allow the registration to the "Melayu" or "bumiputera" category who are non-natives. "Not every Malay or bumiputera is a native of Sabah," he said commenting on the on-going Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigations into the fake Native Certificate issuance. He said the MACC and the police should extend their investigations on fake Native Certificates to those dubious ones issued to unqualified persons.He said the move was long overdue to weed out sham certificates that rob natives of their native land rights.According to him, the issuance of genuine certificates to non-natives is a serious abuse of power and, perhaps, involves corruption and offenders including the issuing authority should be investigated and brought before the law."Non-natives owning native lands is a growing menace to the future of natives in Sabah with long-term negative implications if the problem remains unchecked and allowed to continue," he said.The case under investigation where a non-native holding 300 native titles was a good example of the consequences of a fake Native Certificate on native lands and the loss by natives, he said."The State Government needs to be more pro-active in protecting and preserving native lands and assist natives with their native lands.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
