No application for 500,000 acres
Published on: Friday, October 06, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Land and Survey Department Director Datuk Safar Untong said it received no application for 500,000 acres involving Native Customary Right (NCR) land in Tambunan from a company. However, there was an application by a company for 500 acres but it was not approved, he said, regarding the matter that went viral on social media."It is rather unfortunate that there are irresponsible quarters that manipulated the acreage figures, replacing a decimal point with a coma, making it look like the application is for 500,000 acres instead of 500 acres.
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"The Land & Survey Department is very careful with land applications and would not simply grant approval without scrutinising them," he told Daily Express, Thursday. Safar was responding to the social media posting that some 500,000 acres in Tambunan had been approved to a company from Kuala Lumpur.The Tambunan people strongly protested the proposed land acquisition and appealed to the Tambunan District Office to look into the matter where Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's name was also mentioned.It is understood that the Tambunan District Officer will call for an emergency meeting to discuss the claim.A list of the companies, number of acres and locations were also stated in the claim such as in Ulu Apin-Apin, Ulu Tikolod, Ulu Lotong, Kg Babagon Ulu and Kg Mansangoh Kirokot, among others.
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Meanwhile, commenting on the issue, Parti Anak Negeri (PAN) called for a revamp of outdated Sabah land laws and policies deemed incapable of stopping the huge loss of NCR land to private companies from outside Sabah.Its President Datuk Henrynus Amin said he was horrified over social media accounts of thousands of acres of NCR land statewide being "stolen from native owners by greedy companies working in cohort with unscrupulous land brokers and corrupt officials".
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He said PAN was investigating the Tambunan land claim, among others, and that the stories may be just the tip of the iceberg and a reminder of the sheer scale of the problem."PAN, therefore, reiterate the call for the immediate freeze of all big land applications by private companies in order to weed out doubtful applicants and stop the further loss of NCR land."To be fair, this is not something that happened yesterday. While BN cannot be solely blamed for the abuse of the system as similar things happened during Usno, Berjaya and PBS time, the coalition has done little to improve the situation," he said in a statement.He said PAN is also fully aware of the BN policy of turning huge acreage of NCR land into communal title but their giving away NCR land to big companies for immediate development begs the question on who are the real beneficiaries."We are yet to be fully convinced of the benefits of the communal title programme. If government is serious about their fear of NT land being sold, they should include prohibition to sell as part of the title terms and conditions," he said.With the prohibition, he said, no transaction or sales and purchase agreement can be done on such land title unless approved by the relevant authorities.PAN, he said, will look into the prospect of total prohibition of land sale involving NT title for the first 10 years to avoid land speculators applying land for resale at a profit. "As a state government PAN will amend the Land Ordinance including NCR land laws formulated during colonial times to further stenghen all NCR land ownership system."In the meantime, he criticised local YBs for their eerie silence on such happenings in their constituencies.He also said PAN is fully aware of the activities of unscrupulous land brokers actively seeking vacant agriculture land to sell to rich buyers from outside Sabah."These land brokers used all kinds of tactics and sophisticated means to get the necessary approval from the relevant authorities. "That is how easy it is for unknown private companies from nowhere to apply for lands and get their application approved very easily," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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