Suhakam calls for dedicated law to solve native customary land disputes

 

A protest over native customary land in Sarawak. Suhakam has called for a Commission on Land Rights to be set up. (PKR Sarawak pic)

PETALING JAYA: Perennial disputes involving native customary land rights in Sarawak must be tackled with the introduction of a specific law, suggests Suhakam, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia.

Suhakam commissioner Jerald Joseph said many of those involved in the land disputes could not afford to bring the issue to court.

“We need a specific law, we can’t wait for the court to make a decision. We pity these people because currently, they need to hire a lawyer to fight for them,” he said in an online media conference from Sibu, Sarawak.

Joseph said Suhakam’s recommendation for setting up a Commission on Land Rights, made in 2013, was the only one of 18 recommendations that was not accepted by the government.

“So now, we still have the problem (of native customary rights land disputes),” he said.

Separately, Suhakam children’s commissioner Noor Aziah Mohd Awal said the commission had written to the education ministry for children in Sarawak without identification papers to be given access to school.

Based on their meeting with the Sarawak Dayak Iban association, it was estimated that 1,000 undocumented children were not allowed to attend school.

Last week, senator Robert Lau called for the federal government to give Sarawak full autonomy over the issue of undocumented children in the state. - FMT