PKR: Sabah natives being discriminated

The opposition party has also pledged to enact specific laws to safeguard and protect the rights and interests of the natives of Sabah.

KOTA KINABALU: There are two types of Bumiputeras in Sabah according to the state PKR – 1st class and 2nd class. The Sabah natives fall into the second category.

It is the constitutional right of the natives of Sabah to be given preferential treatment and the state has to safeguard their well-being but is not doing so, said Kong Hong Ming, Sabah PKR’s presidential council member for Land Management and Development.

Kong, an activist lawyer, contended that if the Malays in the Peninsular Malaysia could enjoy the entrenched property rights in the Malay reserves, which can only be revoked or taken away with a two-thirds majority support of the total numbers of the State Assemblymen and the two-thirds majority support in the State Assembly, the same protection and safeguard should be accorded to the natives of Sabah and Sarawak.

“Even the Orang Asli in Selangor are protected by the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 (Act 134) with an Orang Asli institution established to specifically serve the interests of Orang Asli as the indigenous community.

“Why couldn’t the BN government enact specific law and establish institution to protect and safeguard the interests of the natives of Sabah?” he asked.

He said the natives of Sabah should not be more constrained or controlled than any other community in Malaysia.

The opposition party has pledged to enact specific laws to safeguard and protect the rights and interests of the natives of Sabah, when Pakatan Rakyat comes into power, he said.

Kong made the pledge when speaking at the forum on “NCR Land: Issues, Policies and Challenges in Sabah” organized by Sabah PKR, which was held in the Palace Hotel here this week.

“If the Federated States of Malaya could and have enacted state land to entrench and protect the Malay Reservations, then, the Sabah government has failed miserably in their fiduciary duty to the native communities of Sabah to protect and safeguard their well-being and advancement contrary to the State Constitution and the Federal Constitution under Articles 153 and 161A(5),” he charged.

Reform needed

Sabah PKR will examine the strength and merits of the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 (Act 134) and the protection and safeguard given to the Malay reserves in the West, so as to enact a new specific law to protect and safeguard the rights and interests of the Orang Asal of Sabah.

“Policies alone provide no guarantee to the natives that their wellbeing and advancement would be assured. Safeguards for their rights can only be guaranteed if they are enshrined in the constitution and legal framework of the country and the state.

“We need a reform. What is required now is to convert the political reform into law.”

Kong said the opposition coalition had already pledged in 2008 a Common Policy Framework that guarantees that native customary land (Tanah Adat) in Sabah will not be encroached.

He invited the various native communities in the state are to contribute input on NCR land reform, saying that the indigenous people of Sabah no longer have an ancestral right to take forest produce as their forefathers did.

He added that other than common law native title, NCR is also a right protected under the Federal Constitution.

Some 400 natives from all over Sabah attended the one-day forum. - FMT