Land Code amendments likely to be tabled in May

KUCHING: The state government is expected to table amendments to the Land Code relating to pemakai menoa and pulau galau during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting next May.

In disclosing this yesterday, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas called for patience from all Sarawakians.

“Let the taskforce look at the issues holistically and thereafter work out proposals to amend the Land Code so that issues pertaining to rights of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land could be resolved,” he said when delivering his ministerial winding-up speech.

Uggah said the government is actively studying the amendments while being committed to resolving all issues relating to NCR by having its own bill to amend the Land Code.

He said the state government also considered amendments to other related laws such as the Native Customs (Declarations) Ordinance 1996, Native Courts Ordinance 1992, Interpretation Ordinance 2005, and codified Natives’ Adat.

“Such a detailed and comprehensive exercise inevitably requires more time to come with the proposed holistic amendments,” he said.

Uggah asserted that issues on pemakai menoa and pulau galau should be addressed by all irrespective of political affiliation.

He said NCR issues should not be politicised and there must be genuine attempts to find holistic solutions.

“I want to impress upon this august House that we are not keeping quiet or inactive, as many people alleged. Far from it!

“Active discussions and engagements were not publicised as we do not believe in gaining political mileage on matters close to the people’s heart, neither do we believe in arousing rakyat’s sentiment,” he added.

He said a working committee under the taskforce also studied the memoranda forwarded by the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) and Dayak intellectual groups as well as the view of the Dayak community leaders and village chiefs statewide.

Uggah pointed out that the memoranda and views expressed were mostly opinions and expression of sentiments while substantive proposals to amend the Land Code were lacking.

He cited Baru Bian’s (PKR-Ba Kelalan) statement of having a proposal with a simple amendment without the need to obtain the views of all the communities involved.

“The proposal by Ba Kelalan would not be able to address comprehensively the issues of creation, acquisition and ownership of NCR land especially by the Dayak communities.

“The new definition proposed by Ba Kelalan would not provide clarity in the terms like ‘territorial domain’ and ‘practice of the many native communities’ as they would give rise to disputes as to the actual meaning and effects of these terms.

“Let it be clear that NCR affects all native communities and not just Dayaks, but also include the Malays and Melanau,” stressed Uggah.

Touching on the development of Native Courts in Sarawak, he said 17 workshops and courses on court management had been conducted to upgrade the competencies and capabilities of court officials involving 1,418 participants.

“With regards to the progress of Phase 2 development, which includes a Cultural Centre to be managed by Council for Native Customs and Traditions Sarawak, and a Resource Centre by Native Courts Sarawak, is still at design stage and expected to be completed in 2019,” said Uggah.

As of Sept 30, he said the total NCR land cases registered with the Sarawak Bumiputera Court was 3,237, of which 1,394 had been settled.