Manyin: Land titles take time to process
SERIAN: Land titles take some time to be processed and cannot be done in just a day or two.
Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications Dato Sri Michael Manyin said since the implementation of new NCR land initiative programme the state government had been consistently surveying and issuing land titles to the rightful owners and the exercise was still on- going.
He said the government hoped to issue titles for all NCR land but it could only be done in stages. It had to go through several processes and was not as simple as some people thought.
“Even Pakatan Rakyat which has promised to issue titles to all NCR lands if they came to power will not be able to do it overnight,” he said.
The Tebedu assemblyman said this at the presentation of gazette letters for Bumiputera Common Reserve – Agriculture involving three separate sites under the Bukar Sadong Land District, Samarahan Land District and Muara Tuang Land District at the community hall here yesterday.
The gazette letters were meant for three pieces of 1,625.17ha land involving 11 villages in Serian and two in Batang Samarahan.
“Of course, anyone can make all kind of promises but to deliver is one thing, like what is happening in Pakatan- held states. For example, in Selangor there are water problems while Kelantan remains the poorest state in the country,” he said.
He said the people should never listen to the promises made by the oppositions because they would not be able to deliver them.
He said only the Barisan Nasional ( BN) government had the capability to deliver and that had been proven with the implementation of the new NCR lamd initiative.
“As far as we are concerned, perimeter surveying of NCR land under the government transformation programme (GTP) will continue while native land titles will be issued under Section 18 of Land Code, which means ownership in perpetuity,” he said.
Manyin, who is also Dayak National Bidayuh Association ( DBNA) advisor, said this showed that the BN government cared for the native people in Sarawak contrary to what the opposition claimed during each election.
He recalled that in the last state election Deputy Speaker Datuk Roland Sagah ( Tarat assemblyman) and himself were victims of slander. They were accused by the oppositions of grabbing three quarters of land in Serian.
“The oppositions mentioned these in flyers distributed to the people. It’s fortunate that voters did not believe in the accusations and we still managed to defend our seats,” he said.
Sagah and Muara Tuang assemblyman Dato Sri Mohammad Ali Mahmud were also present at the function.