Compensate those whose houses were burnt

PENAMPANG, Nov 13 (Daily Express) --- The people whose houses were torched and rubber plantation poisoned by the State Forestry Department in the process of evicting them from forest reserves should be compensated, proposed Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) Youth.

Moving the motion of thanks to the President's Policy Speech at the PBS 22nd Congress in Hongkod Koisaan, KDCA here Sunday, PBS Youth Secretary, Webley Disim said the movement deplored the action taken to enforce the law on the locals.

In this respect, he said the movement suggested that appropriate compensation be given to those affected in Kampung Tangkarason.

He said they also urged elected representatives to raise the land matter issue, especially calling for the respective district Land Utilisation Committees (LUCs) to hold more and frequent meetings, perhaps four times a year.

Webley claimed that the delay in holding meetings by the LUCs had resulted in many native land applications to remain pending, which in the end leads to overlapping and the original applicants losing their applications.

Representing Zone One, a delegate from Kadamaian, Ibrahim Taliban called on the members to stand fully behind the leadership in their selection of candidates to represent the Barisan Nasional (BN) from PBS.

He said it was normal for lobbying among aspirants who wanted to offer their service whenever election is near.

"I hope the leadership will tread carefully when approaching the matter because it could cause rifts. In this respect, I propose that the members will give their full support to whoever is chosen," he said, adding that the party was confident it would be able to retain its own 13 seats plus another one while gesturing to a party banner that belonged to the Kuala Penyu division in the hall.

Ibrahim also called on the present leadership to ensure the next echelon of leaders are really ready to handle the task before passing the baton to them.

"We don't want similar situations like in Sarawak when as soon as the leader of the party stepped down the back-up leaders started to fight among each other," he said.

Beginning this year, PBS' 60 divisions together with its Labuan division and Youth and Wanita wings were divided into zones and only two speakers were allowed to debate on the motion of thanks to the President's policy speech.