MIRI: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) will always protect native customary rights (NCR) land and will not allow any of it to be developed without approval from the owners.
Thus, Second Urban Development and Resources Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan yesterday told owners of NCR land to not be suspicious when the perimeters of their land are surveyed under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code (SLA).
“The amendment to the land code was to confirm that the NCR land had been surveyed and registered in the system,” he said in his speech before presenting titles under Section 18 to 347 NCR land owners at a leading hotel in Miri yesterday.
He refuted claims that Section 6 enabled the authorities to confiscate NCR land because the amendment to the Native Territorial Domain (NTD) proved that such land was given protection.
“The NTD comprises Pemakai Menoa and Pulau Galau in the State Land Code. It enables all Bumiputera customary land and land that have usufructuary rights to be recognised,” he said.
He also stressed that gazettement was meant to stop Bumiputeras from losing their land.
“This information is available at any Land and Survey Department offices or online via eMap and Land and Survey Information System (Lasis) mobile app,” he said.
Awang Tengah then hit out at the opposition for having failed to convince their “masters” in Malaya to allocate specific funds in the national 2020 budget for NCR land perimeter survey in Sarawak.
“In fact, the federal only gave RM10.75 million as of Oct 15. The accusation that perimeter surveys under Section 6 was a trick by the state government to grab the people’s land is just to cover up their failure to help owners of NCR land,” he explained.
However, if the landowners have no confidence and believe the claims, Awang Tengah said they can return their land titles under Section 6 to the government.
“However, until today, not one has been surrendered. This proves that the allegation is a huge lie,” he said.
