NATIVE LAND ISSUES DOMINATE SUHAKAM HEARING

By : MURIB MORPI.

KOTA KINABALU: Native land issues dominated the second day of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) public hearing here yesterday, with witnesses claiming cruelty and unfair treatment by government agencies.

A Sungai Village Chief, Mahalil Mutalib, said his community had suffered unfair and cruel treatment after government agencies and private companies took over and wanted to push them out of their own ancestral land.

Mahalil, who came all the way from Kampung Kenang Kenangan in Tongod, Kinabatangan for the hearing, said their native customary land was somehow given away by the authority to a logging company which had encroached and destroyed part of a 200-year-old ancestral burial area in the village.

“A land title was then given by the Land and Survey Department to an employee at the department’s Kota Kinabalu office.

“And now the land has been sold to a man from Johor. I learned this from one of the workers who are planting oil palm trees there,” he said, claiming the land involved was developed for crop planting since six months ago.

Mahalil said his community had been residing in the area for generations long before independence, sustaining themselves by planting short-term crops such as hill rice, tapioca, banana and vegetables.

Naturally, they were angry when outsiders suddenly appeared and with heavy machinery, claiming to be the rightful owner of the land whose ownership is recognized by the authority.

“When we go to voice our dissatisfaction, we were told to go home and there was no use for us to make noise, as they have already bought the land title.

“They sent in a bulldozer, leveled our ancestral burial ground, and there is nothing we can do about it. It just makes you feel helpless and can’t prevent yourself from crying no matter how hard you try,” he told the panel chaired by Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam.

Mahalil, who was accompanied by several villagers, also produced documents to prove their claim on the land, including payment receipt for the land title made to the British administrator in 1946.

Also produced was an old marriage document of his grandparents as supporting evidence that indicated his community had settled in the area long before independence.

Being unaware of its importance, he said the villagers never applied for the land title before, not until 2010 where an application was filed at the Tongod District Office for the 90-acre burial ground.

As for the 225-acre village land, he said an official application was made earlier, in 1982 by the villagers headed by himself.

According to him the land was surveyed in 1997 but the Land Department rejected it and ordered for another survey to be conducted in 2002.

Following this, the villagers submitted another application in 2003 together with a signed supporting letter from Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman dated August 4 2003.

In the same year, they hired a private surveyor to measure the land, confident that their application was being handled accordingly and soon would be approved due to the Chief Minister’s support.

But to their surprise, the land was also applied by one Zaharah Abdullah and 39 others whom they did not know, and now the land was being developed for oil palm plantation.

“A company is clearing the land’s border for oil palm planting, and they are using the police to intimidate the villagers who are objecting against it,” said Mahalil.

In addition to this, he said part of their customary land had been included in the Tengkulap Forest Reserve which was gazetted in the 80s covering an estimated 1,000 acres.

Following the classification, he said the villagers who were heavily dependent on the forest lost an important source of living, as they could no longer hunt, forage or develop the jungle for agriculture.

The situation got complicated in March 2005 when six villagers were arrested and charged with encroaching after opening orchards in the reserve area.

“The villagers were robbed of a vital resource and no longer allowed to enter their ancestral land which they have been dependent upon since generations. In fact, the Forestry Department has set up a post to guard the forest.

“We are accused of encroaching forest reserve land when in fact we have been there since time immemorial. They came and arrested the villagers, they threw us in jail.

“The police were not particularly keen on putting villagers in lockups but the Forestry Department insisted that they must be punished. So, with their dirty clothes and empty stomachs, villagers, some were old men, were put behind bars.

“One of them actually got sick after being detained in the cold prison cell,” said Mahalil.

The public hearing panel, who had earlier listened to a similar case involving complainants from Kampung Mangkadaid, Ranau, expressed sympathy to the villagers but said it was not in a position to resolve land disputes.

It however will compile all information related by those who had come forward to develop a proposal to be given to the government, to effectively address the issue. (theborneopost)