Resolve longstanding land issues quickly — Jimmy
TAWAU: Sri Tanjong assemblyman Jimmy Wong Sze Phin will personally look into the illegal conversion of lands in the district without the landowners¡¯ knowledge.
He will personally collect and submit all the documents involved for the Land and Survey Department director to act on, and, if necessary, would call on the police to open an investigation paper on this matter.
Jimmy said many landowners in Tawau had lost their rights to their land because it had changed ownership without their knowledge.
He highlighted the issue during a meeting and dialogue session with Land and Survey director Datuk Safar Untong organized by DAP Tawau yesterday in the hope that the problems of these landowners will be eventually resolved.
About 300 people with land issues, some from Lahad Datu, Kunak, Semporna, Kalabakan, Sebatik and Tawau attended the session.
Jimmy said that after five months as Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department, he had worked hard with the Land and Survey Department personnel to resolve cases related to land.
He said he has received several complaints on land issues in Sabah and was pleased with the service given by the department’s personnel in tackling the problem and hoped that the department will tackle the problem seriously and treat everyone fairly.
Jimmy said the department should listen to the people’s problems and resolve them and they must be people-friendly too.
“This is the time for the department to practise serving the people under the new government and change its working attitude.
“The people are observing the government on how it will solve the problem that has long been delayed,” he said.
He said the Prime Minister and Chief Minister had often raised issues on weak delivery system in the country.
“The responsibility for the implementation and delivery lies with the civil servants.”
Jimmy said he hoped to see the Land and Survey Department become a competent, accountable and transparent government department.
He went on to say that although he is serving in the Chief Minister’s Department, he will not intervene or give instructions in the operation of the department, but will take issues for its attention and is ready to work together to resolve land problems.
“I believe the Land and Survey Department is a professional entity and is able to carry out its responsibility professionally, not only to the minister but to all the people,” he said.
Therefore, he said government agencies should adopt transparency, be efficient and corruption-free when performing their daily duties.
He said over the past few months, he had received several complaints on land issue applications.
He said most of them have applied for land over 20 years ago and a handful of them had applied over 30 years ago without any response from the department.
Jimmy said cases that have long been delayed are a serious matter and require immediate attention.
He therefore called on the department to formulate a system to speed up the land application process.
In addition, he said there were many who came to see him on compensation which had not been received from land acquisition by the government.
These include the land at Gudang Empat for the dam construction and around the Tawau Airport for the construction of TawauSandakan highway.
Jimmy said the dual lane road had long been completed and landowners involved had not received their compensation.