NGOs, civil societies to hold rally on NCR Nov 13
KUCHING: A group of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and civil societies have planned to hold a rally here on Nov 13 to, amongst others, urge the government and politicians not to delay anymore in making necessary amendments to the State Land Code.
Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) had on their behalf written to notify the police of the rally, which will take place in three points including Kuching Waterfront.
Sadia secretary general Nicholas Mujah said he expected some 500 people to participate in the rally, which is to be held following a recent Federal Court judgement which ruled that NCR land cannot be returned to the native owners once converted to Lease of State Land.
“The rally also coincides with the State Legislative Assembly sitting. At the end of the rally, we intend to hand over a memorandum to the state government for the attention of the Chief Minister,” he told reporters here yesterday.
He pointed out that State Land Code needs to be amended to remedy the Federal Court judgement which was made on Oct 13, as many people are anxious this could set the precedent for other similar court cases as they would prefer to keep their land instead of just getting compensation for extinguishment of NCR.
Land activist Nicholas Bawin, who was also present, said NCR issues affect not just the Dayak community but also the Malays and the Melanaus.
He said there have been suits filed in the court by the Malay and Melanau community after their native land were infringed, and some of the cases have been won by them.
The former deputy chairman of Majlis Adat Istiadat said the NCR terminologies used by the native communities maybe different in name but the concept is the same.
As such, he believes this rally presents the opportunity to get the government to act on this problem which has been lingering at least for the past 30 years.
"We are not going to be rough. This is going to be a peaceful assembly, hopefully more peaceful than Bersih.
“We are not going to bring our parang and spears to the rally, as we are peace loving people. We just want to express our feelings and discontentment. What we want is to retain our rights, not to lose them," he said.
‘Plastic bottles turned into synthetic clothing for disaster victims’
MIRI: One-litre mineral water bottles can be recycled into synthetic clothes to provide emergency relief for victims of disasters.
This was revealed by Eric Lim from Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Malaysia Miri Liaison who said 30 such bottles can produce an adult-sized T-shirt, and 70 for a single-person blanket.
“We, the Miri Liaison of the foundation, have been collecting all sorts of plastic bottles – cooking oil, toiletries and many other recyclables items – for 10 years now, whereby the end products were used as relief for disaster victims throughout the world, including Malaysia.”
According to him, the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Malaysia Miri Liaison will compress and pack collected plastic bottles along with other items to be shipped to Taiwan for recycling.
Lim said this during a cleanup programme at Lutong Beach, here jointly organised with Miri Second-Hand and Recycle Dealers Association.