Only BN can solve land ownership issues – assistant minister
SEMPORNA: The Barisan Nasional (BN) is the only government with the commitment to solve land ownership issues in this district.
Assistant Finance Minister Datuk Ramlee Marahaban said the issue had long been delayed and had to be resolved, not only for the sake of the people but also for the district's development.
According to Ramlee, the land ownership issue arose and became increasingly complicated due to changing land policies resulting from the change in government such as from USNO to Berjaya and once more to PBS.
Due to this, he said some land titles were changed from native land to cooperative and later became smallholder titles, and these changes caused overlapping status of the land.
"The change in land policies also caused an irregular land ownership process which later caused applications to become incomplete.
"We have identified two major problems regarding land in Semporna which include land without grants and overlapping ownership of land," said Ramlee.
In order to overcome this problem, he said the BN government had made amendments to land policies and created the Sabah Native Land Services (PANTAS) programme.
Ramlee said the effectiveness of this programme could be seen in resolving the land issue in the first phase of the programme at Mukim Lihak Lihak.
"That is why I made an application to expand the programme to settle the status of land in Kampung Sungai Intan, Sungai Buaya, Tarapuli, Tagasan and several other areas.
"Through this programme, we will be able to identify land owners who have been exploring, occupying and cultivating the land," said the Bugaya assemblyman.
Ramlee also stressed that the land issue has become his priority as he understood the burden which had to be shouldered by the people due to it.
Therefore, he said that people should not simply make a decision to change the government as BN had proven that they always strived to help the people and changing the government would not solve the land ownership issue but instead worsen it.
"The land issue must be solved as this is the main basis for building and transforming Semporna in an organised manner.
"This programme will benefit the people in Semporna, not only in Bugaya but all throughout Semporna as this issue has been delayed for a long time without proper attention," he said.
Ramlee also said that when elected as a people's representative, a leader should carry out their responsibilities and not make promises to the people without effort and initiative.