Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah
KUCHING: PKR Sarawak chairman Baru Bian says it is wrong for Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah to take his silence at a meeting on the new initiatives of NCR land perimeter survey as ‘consent’.
Just because there was no voice of dissension during the briefing on June 28, Uggah should not assume there was consent to what was said in the briefing, the Work Minister pointed out.
Baru was responding to Uggah’s statement that Baru did not object to perimeter survey to NCR land under Section 6 (on communal title) of the Sarawak Land Code during that June 28 joint federal-state government action council meeting (MTNS).
“YB Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas should (also) know that the MTNS meeting is not the right forum for policies of either the federal or state governments to be made.
“The MTNS was fundamentally formed to supervise and monitor the implementation of all federal government projects and programmes for the people and the State of Sarawak,” said Baru in a press statement yesterday.
He said the council has been tasked with the monitoring of all federal government-funded projects and initiatives in the state and he chaired its first meeting on March 18.
“At this first meeting I raised up the grant of RM40 million from the federal government for a special programme for Sarawak’s bumiputera for the year 2019 whereby, of the RM40 million, RM21.5 million was allocated specifically for the purpose of surveying NCR lands.
“I made it very clear that the said grant of RM21.5 million reserved specifically for the surveying of NCR land be used to survey NCR lands under Section 18 of the Sarawak Land Code, not Section 6.
“This was further reiterated in my press statement on March 28 , 2019 titled ‘Federal Funds for NCR Survey’,” he said.
At the second MTNS (June 28), Uggah joined in as co-chairman, Baru said.
“A report was presented by the Director of Land and Survey (Department) on the updates to the ‘New Initiatives on Survey NCR Land in Sarawak’ (Program Pengukuran Tanah Hak Adat NCR) wherein the acreage and number of titles issued under Section 6 and Section 18 (individual title) were furnished. After the presentation of the paper, YB Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas asked me if I had any comments. I responded that I had no comment but that I have a different view on this matter and that this meeting was not the forum for the issue to be argued and debated.
“I said this out of respect for YB Datuk Amar who was there at the meeting representing the state government which has a very different view on the definition of NCR and how it should be surveyed. By making that polite response, it was very clear for all present to understand that in no way had I consented to accept that NCR should be surveyed under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code or that I had changed my stance and position on this matter. All present, I am sure, heard what I had said,” he added.
Baru, who is also Selangau MP, said it was necessary for him to issue the press statement “because the facts of the matter have to be put forward for all to know.”
In his Oct 28 press statement, Uggah, the Bukit Saban assemblyman said he was astonished and regretted the remarks made by Baru when he denied he had agreed with the move by the Sarawak government in carrying out perimeter survey on NCR land under Section 6.
Uggah said he and Baru were joint-chairmen of the joint federal-state government action committee, and no voice of dissension was recorded when the matter was brought up.
During the June 28 meeting, one of the issues deliberated was on the proposal by the Land and Survey Department Sarawak on how the office is going to use the RM10.3 million in federal funding for the survey of NCR land.
The meeting reached a unanimous decision to accept the Land and Survey Department Sarawak’s proposal to use the funds for perimeter survey under Section 6 and under Section 18, Uggah said, adding that there was no voice of dissension and this consent was duly recorded and minuted.
Subsequently, a committee meeting co-chaired by Uggah and Baru was convened again on Sept 27 and the minutes was read out for confirmation.
“Again, there was no dissenting voice. If the Honourable Works Minister had seen it fit to object, he should have voiced out his disagreement then and not now,” said the Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development.