KUCHING: There should be no landless person in Sarawak because the state is large in relation to its small population of only 2.8 million people.
State Reform Party (Star) president Lina Soo thinks that all landless families should be granted a piece of land with perpetuity title for the family to build a permanent home and perhaps a vegetable patch.
“This should be a priority policy of the government as every Sarawakian family should be able to look to the future with confidence knowing that they have the most valuable asset of all ― land,” she said.
Regarding government land data, she said it should be shared with the public and the information should be available upon request.
On non-governmental organisations (NGOs), she urged them to play their roles to complement the roles of community leaders in getting native customary rights (NCR) land surveyed and demarcated.
“NCR land should be surveyed and issued titles as a matter of process ― not on an ad hoc basis,” said Star president, Lina Soo.
She noted that the Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA) has been helping with perimeter surveys of NCR land with the agreement of their owners and witnessed by village chiefs.
She felt that this would make it easy for the state government to formalise the surveys.
“Licensed surveyors just need to verify where the pegs are,” she said.
Soo expressed her support for the use of private surveyors to expedite the survey of NCR land.
She pointed out that there were many professional surveyors for the purpose.
She was reacting to Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s recent announcement that the state government might employ private surveyors to complement the efforts of the Land and Survey Department (Jabatan Tanah dan Survey ― JTS) in surveying NCR land.
“The government must pay the same attention to surveying NCR land as they do for oil palm plantations and industrial land,” she said.
She said that with satellite technology, mapping could be done easily.
“There is no reason to fail to expedite the process,” she said.
