NABAWAN: Kampung Pengaraan Villagers in this district have regretted the action of officers and staff of the Forestry Department for destroying several oil palm trees in their village.
A villager, Aklis Sutung claimed that the department’s staff came into the village in 11 vehicles together with several policemen on Dec 11
Then the officers and staff destroyed the palm trees which were planted by the villagers who have been living in the village for many years.
“We were shocked by their presence and we were not even informed about their plan,” he said.
He said their presence was not only a warning to the villagers not to cultivate in forest reserve areas but served to destroy some palm trees already planted by the residents.
“Their actions have caused disharmony to the people who have living in the village since the days of their ancestors,” Aklis said this to the media after the incident recently.
He said the village had existed before the 1915 Rundum rebellion by a Murut warrior, Ontoros @ Antanom who fought against British rule.
“We know our village was gazetted as a forest reserve but where else can we cultivate for our survival because this is our place of birth and logically we are already living in this area even before the area was gazetted as forest reserves,” he said.
Aklis said, according to the customs of the village, the presence of the officers and staff of the department could be viewed as having disrupted
public order because they came without prior notice.
He said on Dec 13 the villagers were issued with a notice of transfer of palm plants.
Aklis said the notice, among others, sought the attention of villagers who had planted oil palm in the forest reserve to move the crops to their own land or areas outside the forest reserve.
But the question is, he said, where could the residents move the crops to because the village is already included in the Forest Reserve.
“To enable the villagers to plant oil palm in their own land, the government should change the status of the land area to state land so that the villagers could apply for them through Native Title or Communal grants,” said Aklis.
Another resident Clay Adut Sigoh, claimed that they were shocked by the presence of the officers and staff of the department. What they did was inhuman, he claimed.
“I worked so hard, right from the early stages of exploring the land until the planting of oil palm trees. With all the oil palm trees destroyed, my efforts have gone to waste,” he said.
Clay, therefore, appealed to the authorities concerned to be more considerate by allowing the villagers to keep their oil palm until after the harvest.
Meanwhile, former Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK) chairman, Lukap Angansak said villagers had lived in the village for hundreds of years without interference from any party.
But he said the action of the forestry staff on December 11 this year came as ‘a tsunami’.
“Although the village was gazetted as a forest reserve, we will not budge as we have customary rights to this area. We have strong evidence to show that this area belongs to us, as our heritage through our ancestors Angkitang Bin Bangkuis who was born in this village on December 11, 1916,” he said.
According to Lukap, they have applied to the state government in 2007 that the village area be removed from Forest area, but they did not receive any reply to their application.