PBS Tandek wants Sabah government to revoke land approved to company

KOTA MARUDU, May 22 (The Borneo Post) -- Parti Bersatu Sabah’s (PBS) Tandek division has passed a resolution calling on the state government to revoke a huge parcel of land approved to a certain company involving the Kota Marudu and Pitas districts, which affects 35 villages and native customary rights (NCR) land.The resolution was passed at the division’s 25th annual general meeting here yesterday which was attended by 122 delegates from 118 branches, who had voiced the grievances of the people affected.

Their contention was that the perimeter survey done by the company to develop 60,000 hectares of land in the two districts did not exclude land developed by the villagers as well as those claimed as customary rights.

The matter had caused concern and distress to

the people who had run out of patience, several delegates pointed out at the meeting.

The large land area is said to overlap NCR land, land alienated as kampung reserve, land applied and developed by farmers, grazing reserve, water catchment areas and those earmarked for public amenities, which the delegates claimed should have been excluded from the perimeter survey.

The delegates claimed that the affected people were also frustrated with the inability of the state government to resolve the matter and that angered land owners and villagers were contemplating holding protest demonstrations and seeking help from groups such Suhakam and international NGOs.

“The company did not fulfill its previous undertaking reached at a meeting involving the district office and village heads to also survey the kampung boundaries and customary rights land simultaneously with its perimeter survey.

“The people said this is not consistent with the 1Malaysia concept of putting the people first,” said PBS deputy president and Tandek division chief, Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili, who officiated the meeting chaired by PBS vice-president Datuk Radin Malleh.

Dr Ongkili, who is also Kota Marudu MP and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, added that he had raised the problem with four previous Sabah chief ministers but the state government had failed to come up with a resolution acceptable to the villagers.

He said he would raise the issue again with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

Many of the delegates had stressed that unless the state government did something concrete about this, the issue would become an international one.

They also claimed that similar problems were happening in Mangin and Matunggong (the other state seats under the Kota Marudu parliamentary constituency) where a government agency was awarded 7,000 ha of land for development.

“The delegates also urged the state government to cancel the award of the land to the agency.

“The agency can always be given land elsewhere that does not involve taking land already occupied and developed by village folks,” said Dr Maximus. — Bernama