AT the opening of the new legal year, the Chief Judge for Sabah and Sarawak, Datuk Richard Malanjum called for the setting up of a land tribunal to expedite the trials of NCR cases.
He said that NCR cases are complex with multiple customs and peculiarities involving many interpreters as there were many dialects. In Sarawak last year alone, over 20 new cases were registered.
He opined that the proposed member of the tribunal had to be more than a legal person, having also to be a historian , an anthropologist, a spiritualist and at times a semi politician, underlining the extent of knowledge the persons have to carry.
Incidentally in my article previously, I also called for the setting up of a NCR Land Tribunal. However, my objective goes beyond adjudicating claims in court and my idea had extended from that of the Chief Judge.
My intention was for the tribunal to adjudicate whether intended joint ventures, proposed to be entered into with NCR claimants over their land should proceed. The Land Tribunal should therefore be attended by commercial analysts who are able to look into the feasibility of the proposed projects which companies intend to use the NCR land for.
My concern is that after 50 years of nationhood many of the natives still live on land which they do not know if tractors and bulldozers are going to, one day, enter upon, and someone waving a provisional lease in hand, says that it is his land and the natives have to leave.
Is there some way we can push ownership of land to the native. If not full ownership what about some form of ownership or rights over which the natives can create value from their own land.
No country can have a peaceful or happy people if their own people cannot have ownership of their own land.There is bound to be social unrest and upheaval. At best, the people will not be able to invest their full endeavour over a parcel of land which may eventually be claimed by others.
Would you invest your life-savings into a house with a leasehold that has expired. Similarly, how can the Natives be expected to invest in their ancestral land when our NCR land is still deemed State Land under the Land Code and at any time someone may lay claim over it.
This leads to the unhappy situation where the claimants cannot enter into a contract with other commercial farmers, save through state agencies, LCDA or Salcra.
But what do these agencies bring to the table? Without any right to these NCR land, the claimants also do not have a right to charge and take a loan for commercial or economic endeavour. What then is the use of saying that Sarawak has a land size of Malaya when the Land Code yokes on the claimants and the land is useless.
When New Zealand embarked on living up to its moral obligation and setting about giving back some of their Maori land to the Maori tribes, there was great trepidation. And why not when some of these land were where universities were sited, or the plushest waterfront property or fishing grounds. However, it spurred a Maori renaissance and pushed the economic growth of the Maoris. Sensibilities took over and common sense ruled. The Maoris joint ventured with other parties or rented out their land. They gained precious knowhow.
So it is natural if we are going to be hesitant and with trepidation embark on a revolutionary move to amend our land to enrich our natives and to vest such powers in them in the hope that in future they will be able to cultivate and enrich Sarawak in return.
For now many people, including many in the political corridors of power still think that, and perhaps not too wrongly, that if you issue title to some of these natives, they will sooner sell off the land than cultivate it. Private sector knowhow and perseverance cannot be underestimated. Neither should the natives’ willingness to work be overlooked.
While the Sabah Government has immediately come to back the call for the setting up of a tribunal, nothing is heard of from our State Government. The Sabah State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Haji Noor, on the call by the Chief Judge, had said it was a good idea although he accepted that there was much work for the setting up of a tribunal as it may require the amendments to some ordinances.
If handled properly, this could just pull the majority of natives from the quagmire of poverty. With vested interest in land, perhaps they will return to the rural area, and perhaps with a land to call their own, the more visionary ones may start to organise themselves into commercial farmers rather than be the subsistence ones they all currently are. Perhaps the 40,000 Sarawak native diaspora may come home from Johor. This could just be the watershed for a Native renaissance.
Funnily, neither has any Sarawak NGOs nor native social groups come out to make their opinions heard on this matter. Yet, none of the native groups such as DBNA or the Dayak Graduates Association have picked up the baton to pursue the matter.
Worse still, neither have the native politicians picked up on this issue. What about the universities and their native lecturers? Should such noteworthy suggestion by the Chief Judge just pass without a second thought being given to it?
Is that to infer that the natives are happy with the current situation and they are happy to go to court to have their land ownership issues settled there? And wait the number of years for a judgment?
Write Straight, Write Sharp!