See: Land title granted under Section 18 superior
TITLE which is granted under Section 18 of the Land Code is superior to title issued under the proposed Section 6A in the Land Code Amendment Bill 2018 due to various restrictions.
See Chee How ( PKR-Batu Lintang) , when debating on the Bill yesterday, said under the proposed Section 6A, the community could not claim ‘pemakai menoa’ and ‘pulau galau’ or such other similar native customary or ancestral territorial domains, including ‘ tempat cari maka’ for the native Malay community that they are given full recognition and force of law.
“Maybe Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah was not properly and fully briefed on the implications of Section 6A, with regards to the native territorial domain (NTD),” he added.
He further said Section 18 of the State Land Code with its short title ‘Grant to Natives’ - it is stipulated in sub- section 1 that: ‘where the director, subject to any direction from the minister, is satisfied that a native has occupied and used any area of unalienated state land in accordance with rights acquired by customary tenure amounting to ownership of the land for residential or agricultural purposes, he may, subject to Section 18A, issue to the native a grant in perpetuity of that area of land free of premium rent and other charges’.
Under the amendment bill, ‘ Native communal title’ means a title issued in accordance with Section 6A over a native territorial domain, granted in perpetuity but subject to the many restrictions stipulated in Section 6A, including the inequitable and even discriminating constraint that the NTD shall not exceed 500ha according to Section 6A(2).
See said that under the Land Code (Amendment) Bill 2018, it would bring two issues to the people of Kampung Lebor (Serian) who have proven the existence of their native customary rights over an area of land which they called ‘pemakai menoa’ of over 5,000ha in court.
The people of Kampung Lebor, he added, were also entitled to a grant in perpetuity of that area of land free of premium rent and other charges under Section 18 of the Land Code.
“Under the amendment bill, the community will only be allowed the maximum of 500ha of land for their NTD, said See.
Secondly, the cap of 500ha for an area to be claimed as NTD for a community such as Kampung Lebor, with more than 250 families, would mean that each family would have less than two hectare of land as their share of the NTD.
This he added, was certainly insufficient for a family of 10 to plant padi or cash crop for their subsistence.
“It is therefore wrong for Uggah to criticise the private member’s bill brought to this august House by the member from Ba Kelalan Baru Bian,” he added.
According to him, Baru had proposed to amend only Section 2 of the Land Code to give full recognition and full force of law to ‘pemakai menoa’, ‘pulau galau’ or such other similar native customary or ancestral territorial domains, including ‘ tempat cari makan’ for the native Malay community.
Thiswouldallowotherprovisions of the Land Code as they are – such as Section 18 – to give effect to the recognition and force of law to the native customary rights land of the various native communities.