Dennis suggests native territorial domain to be more than 500 hectares

A GOVERNMENT backbencher has proposed that the size limitation to be claimed on native territorial domain under the Land Code (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which was tabled yesterday, be extended beyond 500 hectares.

Expressing optimism that the Sarawak government would hear out such requests from members of the august House, Dennis Ngau ( PBB-Telang Usan) said the native territorial domain for each longhouse or village should be according to the number of longhouse doors, population of the longhouse as well as the size of that certain village.

“It should be according to the areas that they have already claimed in the vicinity of their longhouses and their villages, which have been acknowledged to belong to them before,” he said when debating the Bill in the august House.

Dennis added that he would leave it to the Sarawak government to evaluate his proposal to the best of the people’s interest.

Met by journalists after the morning session was adjourned, he said some longhouses or villages might have areas of 200 or 300 hectares but there were also those with quite different and comparatively larger areas.

“All of us (those debating in the morning) were saying that we want more because the land size in certain areas such as Ulu Baram are big.

“Which is why in my debate speech, I proposed to go according to the size of pintu ( doors) because some longhouses have 250 doors and 3,000 people,” added Dennis.

He pointed out that sometimes the native territorial domain could involve adjacent villages as well.

To a question, he said he believed that the government would listen to similar requests put forward by many other government backbenchers.

“Our Chief Minister is a flexible man. He will listen to all the requests although he may not mention it all. I’m optimistic that the government will listen to our requests for a larger size limitation,” said Dennis.