Yong holding a copy of a land title deed which had its 999-year tenure slashed to 99 years, leaving it with only 37 years.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) in a statement issued here yesterday denounced the State government as being dishonest in its explanation of the illegal confiscation of property rights by unilaterally replacing the “999 lease” with only “99” years. Datuk Yong Teck Lee in the statement said, among the many cases that have come to his attention, one case did not even involve a sub-divided title from the original land title.
Yong said, he noted that the Land and Survey department had simply deleted the words “nine-hundred and” from the original term “nine-hundred and ninety nine”, leaving only the words “ninety nine”. The land title deed concerned was issued in 1951. He said, as a result of this unilateral action, the land owner whose original land tenure had a balance of 941 years was suddenly left with only 37 years, thereby rendering the entire land worthless.
Yong said he has asked the land owner, who came to the weekly SAPP Mobile Service Centre at Gaya Street, to wait until the coming general election. SAPP will reinstate the 999-year land titles as promised in the SAPP Manifesto.
Yong contends that the Sabah’s ministers were not telling the whole truth when they say that the 999-year land title cannot be done under the law. The Sabah State government used to recognise and accept 999-year leases but this has been discontinued about two years ago. Yong said when he was Chief Minister from May 1996 for two years, he had also approved 999-year leases because 999-year land leases are legal and rightfully belong to the land owners.
With due respect, Yong is now calling on the director of Land and Survey, Datuk Hj. Osman Jamal, to reveal the truth whether he is under instruction from his political masters to confiscate 999-year leases.