Tandek folks prefer Communal Titles
Published on: Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: Tandek assemblywoman Datuk Anita Baranting (pic) pleaded to the new State Government to exempt her constituency when abolishing the Communal Title grant as stated in the proposed 2019 State Budget tabled last Friday.She said the grassroots who are mostly villagers from 22 villages in her constituency anytime prefer the communal land titles rather than be given individual land ownership.There are 22 villages in her constituency and of this, seven were issued Communal Grants five years ago.
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"The remaining 15 villages involving over 2,000 household heads became worried when they heard about the new policy of abolishing the Communal Grants."They are concerned over rampant overlapping of land applications in Tandek as well as arising issues and disputes between the villagers and outsiders such as giant companies that indiscriminately apply for the land. One was given approval of land ownership by the government in 1996 and 1997, where almost hilly areas were involved," she said."That is why these villagers from the 22 villages voiced their disappointment to me when they heard about the policy of abolishing or revoking the issuance of the communal grant as they, especially those with communal titles, fear that their lands would be returned to Asian Forestry Company (AFC) that had taken over development management of the lands from Syarikat Begaraya. Due to the fear of these villagers including those been given the communal land titles, this issue become hot topic among the conversation of local communities in Tandek and Kota Marudu."Therefore, I really hope the new State government would consider my appeal and the wishes of these affected villagers to be highly considered," she said.
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Anita said this when debating the 2019 State Budget at the State Legislative Assembly.She said people from the 22 villages do not want issuance of land ownership as the land measurement would take a long time and the issuance of the land titles would be complicated as well as the process of issuing the approved land titles would take time that may last for years.
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Furthermore, she said, many of the villagers come from poor and low-income group and they may not have the means to apply for the land that would involve costs, time and money.But with communal grant, Anita said no one would be left out or sidelined as distribution of the lots of land is conducted fairly."Management and handling issuance of the communal grant was very good, organised and systematic where each household head and their children above 18 would be given a piece of land to be toiled for either five-acre land for cash crops like corn, potatoes and ginger or eight-acre of land for long-term commodity like oil palm and rubber trees."They were also given a separate piece of land for building their houses. For instance, there is one village in Tandek that was approved for communal grant and cultivate oil palm where they will be enjoying the yield in four to five years to come."Therefor, issuing the communal grant is proven to complement the government efforts to eradicate poverty and it continues to enhance people's wellbeing and livelihood," she said.Anita said she strongly appealed to continue giving communal grant to the remaining 15 villages so as to meet their aspiration and wishes.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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