'Revoke land applications of 8 firms'
Published on: Thursday, March 16, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) called on the State Government to revoke the land applications of eight companies said to be within the excised Mount Mandalom Forest Reserve in Keningau, and give Muruts there a chance to own land. Its State Youth Chief Raymond Ahuar claimed the companies applied for 20,703 acres whereas communities can only apply for small plots and not individual titles but under the communal title scheme."We call on Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman to revoke the companies' application because by right the purpose of the forest reserve being excised was to benefit the community who are mostly Muruts," he told a press conference, Wednesday.ADVERTISEMENT Raymond, who is also its Pensiangan branch head, named the eight companies, their land application details and the varying land sizes applied for.He said in contrast with the size of land applied by the companies, the Murut community from eight villages can only apply for a total of 6,005.8 acres (2,430.5 hectares) under the communal title scheme.He listed the villages as Kg Membulu (252 hectares), Kg Kalampun 2 (379 hectares), Kg Maliyuk (72 hectares), Kg Dalit Laut (217 hectares), Kg Dalit Station (206.3 hectares), Kg Karamatoi Malila (218.5 hectares), Kg Molosok Dalit (409.7 hectares) and Kg Bonor (676 hectares). "It's sad and unfair that the bigger piece is given to companies while the villagers can only apply for 5 acres per communal title participant," he said.ADVERTISEMENT He proposed that the State Government offer bigger plots to the community under the scheme instead of just 5 acres for every participant. "We still disagree with the communal grant scheme. But in this case, it would be fairer to give every participant between 15 acres to 30 acres under the scheme, instead of the companies. At least the Murut people can have some kind of ownership to land. If it's given to the companies, they have nothing," said Raymond.
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To press the State Government to revoke the companies' land application, he pledged to collect 1,000 signatures from villagers and hand to Musa during his scheduled work visit said to be on April 4.In 2014, the Director of the State Forestry Department reportedly said that in a major exercise to address the long standing issues of unauthorised settlements and conversion of forest reserves in the interior, the State Government excised 17,840 hectares (45,000 acres) from Mount Mandalom Forest Reserve, in 2010 and 7,123 hectares (18,000 acres) in 2010 and 2012 from Sook Plains Forest Reserve."The excised lands are now being identified by the relevant authorities, largely for allocation on the communal title system and some for Yayasan Sabah in Mount Mandalom for its socio economic obligations and responsibilities," he had said.Mannan had also said 27,863 hectares (about 70,000 acres) had been excised for the benefit of communities, which incidentally was close to 40 per cent of the total land area of Singapore.However, it could not be immediately verified if the reported excised land is one referred to by Raymond."The whole point is that when an excise is made the State Government should give priority to the people who have lived for generations in the area, not private companies. They can argue that we are too small a population to be allowed to own bigger piece of land. But we have to think about our future generation. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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In time to come, our numbers will grow but by then, we won't have our own land," added Raymond.Also present were State PKR Youth Secretary Stefly Said, State Youth Coordinator Razeef Rakimin, Pensiangan, Kota Kinabalu and Putatan PKR Youth Heads Jufrey Omopor, Bryan Chua and Stefrend Said. - Leonard Alaza