Sagah’s statement a shocker – PKR
KUCHING: State PKR chairman Baru Bian has expressed shock at Tarat assemblyman Datuk Roland Sagah’s claim that the opposition will wipe out the special privileges of Sarawakians if they come to power.
Besides that, Sagah, who is also the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) deputy speaker, said the rural folk might lose their rights to Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands if they supported the opposition party.
“I’m shocked to hear that statement from a very senior politician. I think he is either trying to twist the facts or he’s ignorant of what we have been doing all these years.
“In fact, all the NCR lawyers who have been fighting NCR cases for the natives are all from PKR and the fight is still on,” Baru, who is Ba Kelalan assemblyman, told The Borneo Post yesterday.
He said as the DUN deputy speaker, Sagah should not have missed the stand of the state government of not agreeing to the decisions of the courts on ‘pemakai menoa’ and ‘ pulau galau’.
“They (state government) rejected it. Our chief minister (Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem) has in fact made a very clear stand that was recorded in the DUN Hansard, that they are not going to accept pemakai menoa and pulau galau as NCR.
“Not only that, my previous private member’s motion to amend the state Land Code to include pemakai menoa and pulau galau as NCR was also rejected. So what are you (Sagah) talking about?
Baru, who is an NCR lawyer, said as far as PKR was concerned, this NCR issue was clearly one of the very important issues affecting Sarawakians that they were fighting for which was also stated in their manifesto in 2011 state election and also for the coming state election.
He also rubbished claims that the opposition would abolish the state’s immigration rights, but emphasised that what they were very clear of was that they were against the abuse of immigration laws to prevent any opposition member or person from coming to Sarawak.
Instead, he said the immigration laws to bar people from entering the state should be used for people like known criminals, terrorists or those coming into Sarawak to exploit Sarawakians in any form be it economically or physically.
“The thing is, it’s good to bar people because of their extremist views. But the problem is when you bar them they are still in Malaysia and can still make statements in the television or papers. I say, to deal with this kind of people (extremists), you charge them under the law.”