Manyin (fourth left) launches of the survey for individual lots programme at Grogo and Sibuluh. Also seen are (from fifth left) Nansian, Ranum and Ik Pahon and Austin (far left).
BAU: The Bidayuh community should not have any doubts on the government’s initiative to survey their native customary rights (NCR) land.
Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communication Dato Sri Michael Manyin said the government was sincere in helping the community obtained titles for their NCR land through the NCR new initiative programme and this should be lauded by every member of society.
Unfortunately, he said, many of them were still skeptical about the government’s noble efforts to ensure that land belonging to the community would be surveyed and later issued titles.
“The government in fact wants to help us protect our rights over our NCR land by giving us the title to prove that the land belongs to us. With the titles in our hands no one can take the land away from us.
“With the titles we can use the land as surety to apply for bank loans if we don’t have enough capital to start our business. This is the advantage if our lands are issued titles,” he said.
He said this at the launch of the survey for individual land lots under Section 18 of Sarawak Land Code for Kampung Grogo and Kampung Sibuluh at the civic centre here yesterday.
The total acreage of (NCR) land to be surveyed is 1,981.99 hectares in Grogo and about the same in Sibuluh. Both areas were approved for perimeter survey in early 2011 while approval for the survey of individual lots in the two villages was issued on May 8.
Manyin, who is Tebedu assemblyman, said the process to survey the whole Bidayuh area however could not be done in a short period as the Land and Survey Department did not have enough manpower to do the job. The department had to cover other areas throughout the state as well.
He said the Bidayuh community should consider itself fortunate because Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA) had been recognised by the government to prepare the documentation for the affected land before being surveyed by Land and Survey Department.
“Through this initiative the process not only will be faster but also will help to cut cost. With that the government will be able to survey more NCR at a faster rate,” he said.
He also said the community should first settle their boundary disputes before calling DBNA to help process the documentation.
“If there are disputes over boundaries, the association or even Land and Survey Department will not be able to come in and in the end the land will not be issued titles,” Manyin said.
DBNA president Datu Ik Pahon Joyik who also spoke at the function said they had started the land documentation programme since 2007 but due to lukewarm response from many villagers despite aggressive roadshows in almost all Bidayuh areas up to April this year only 60 of the 338 registered Bidayuh villages had already been documented.
He said this included Kampung Sikuduk and Kampung Pisa in Padawan that had already been issued with individual land titles and also Kampung Grogo and Kampung Sibuluh which would be surveyed soon.
He advised those whose land had yet to be documented to approach them.
Assistant Minister of Community Development and Tasik Biru assemblyman Datuk Peter Nansian and Opar assemblyman Ranum Mina were at the function.
Assistant Minister of Community Development and Tasik Biru assemblyman Datuk Peter Nansian and Opar assemblyman Ranum Mina were at the function.