Sandakan Council refutes land clearing claim

SANDAKAN: The Sandakan Municipal Council (SMC) yesterday denied an allegation that it was involved in land clearing at Kampung Sinar Baru in Gum-Gum here.

Its deputy president, Haji Hamsan Awang Supain, said that the council was not engaged in an operation to destroy crops at Kampung Sinar Baru.

“The involvement of the council and police was only to help safeguard the owners with valid permit to develop their own lots.

“The decision to help safeguard the legitimate owners was decided through an ad hoc committee meeting to resolve the issue of aggression at Kampung Sinar Baru chaired by Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing, Datuk Haji Zakaria Haji Mohd Edris,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Hamsan added the council also denied the involvement of ESSCom and added that the security control team only comprised the police and the council’s enforcement officers.

Meanwhile, Sandakan District Chief OKK Haji Awang Damit, who is also the trustee, also denied that the lots at Kampung Sinar Baru were granted to illegal immigrants.

For the record, he said every permit issued by the trustee was legally valid as stipulated in Subsection (1), (2), and (3), Section 78 of the Land Ordinance.

“The allegations are baseless and the State Court officials have evidence that there are certain parties who issued fake documents relating to the ownership of lots at Kampung Sinar Baru.

“At the same time, officials of the Native Court are reviewing the case for legal action against the individuals involved,” he said.

Kampung Sinar Baru GumGum, a village occupied by the natives of Dusun and Orang Sungai ethnic groups, had sought a court order on April 21, to stop the SMC from clearing their Native Reserve land.

According to native rights NGO, Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS), the land was gazetted as a Native Reserve since 1988.

However, in 2004, an immigrant who is a Bugis was appointed by the authorities to become the village headman.

The court action against the SMC was sought after the council brought in three excavators and cleared over 40 percent of their cultivated land comprising mostly productive oil palm trees on April 16 this year.

In addition to the appeal, the villagers had made more than 20 police reports over the last 10 years in respect of trespassing and the destruction of the villagers’ crops and houses but to no avail.

The villagers decided to bring the matter to court as the last resort.

Representing the villagers is lawyer, Datuk Kong Hong Ming.

They named defendants, including the SMC president and deputy president in the case.