No hurry to set up Land Tribunal
Published on: Sunday, April 16, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: The State Government does not see any need at the moment to establish a land tribunal to address Native Customary Right (NCR) claim issues in Sabah.Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman (pic) said existing legislation is sufficient to deal with the issues in a fair manner.He said the State Government through the Land and Survey Department still recognises NCR since the formulation of the Land Ordinance Chapter 68 in 1930. ADVERTISEMENT Other than NCR recognition based on Section 14 and Section 80 of the ordinance, he said there are various other methods which can be used to award land to natives in Sabah, such as native reserves, issuance of communal titles and the Natives Land Service programme or Pantas.He said the State Government also carried out its fiduciary responsibility to the very best in order to preserve and protect native land rights in the State."Therefore, there's not need to establish the land tribunal at the present moment," he said, in response to Bingkor Assemblyman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan on the government's stance with regard to the proposal put forward by the "Chief Justice of Borneo".Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum proposed for such a tribunal last year on the grounds that the Native Court is more knowledgeable on matters of adat in relation to land claims. ADVERTISEMENT He was quoted as saying that NCR cases did not just involve the law, but also had cultural and traditional dimensions.Meanwhile, Musa said 208,197 native land titles have been issued by the State Government to natives in Sabah until March 2017. He said the all the titles involved a total area of 802,082 hectares.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Since the past, the State Government has been issuing Native Titles (NT) and Field Registers (FR) to Sabah natives as compared to the Sarawak Government that only gazettes natives lands as NCR (native customary right)," he said in his winding up speech delivered by Special Tasks Minister Datuk Teo Chee Kang at the Assembly.He said in 2016, the State Government through the Land and Survey Department managed to survey 16,049 NCR lands out of which 8,698 land lots with a total size of 13,449 hectares were individual NCR lands and 2,600 hectares were communal titles.Up until now he said, 70 communal titles have been issued involving a total land size of 47,195.81 hectares and 10,260 beneficiaries from 212 villages in 12 districts namely Nabawan, Keningau, Sipitang, Kota Marudu, Papar, Ranau, Beluran, Tongod, Kinabatangan, Pitas, Tenom and Semporna.Aside from that, Musa said five more areas in the districts of Tongod, Beluran and Kota Belud involving a land size of 1,348.42 hectares and 412 beneficiaries have received an approval from the State Government and are in the process of being issued with titles by the Land and Survey Department.He also said 14 other areas involving a land size of 11,244.19 hectares and 3,079 beneficiaries are still awaiting approval from the government."All this shows that the State Government has given priority and protected the interest of natives in Sabah in terms of land ownership," he added.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
He pointed out that since 2012 until today, the State Government through the Land and Survey Department has implemented the Sabah Native Land Programme or PANTAS.Under this programme he said individual lots based on native localities have been implemented in 82 villages in five districts with an estimated 7,200 lots involving 10,817.48 hectares. - Leonard Alaza