KUCHING: Utilities Minister Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom agrees that the Interpretation Act 2005 should be amended.
This amendment is to allow children, whose either parent is native, to opt to be given native status or otherwise.
He said this was in view of the large number of mixed marriages here in Sarawak.
“We also need to study the background as to why the interpretation was made as such, and Majlis Adat Istiadat Sarawak (Council for Native Customs and Traditions) or MAIS should be consulted on the matter,” Rundi said when contacted today.
He was commenting on the Sarawak Eurasian Association (SEA) earlier urging the Sarawak government to assist children of mixed marriages with regard to ancestral land matters.
Its president Datin Dona Drury-Wee said SEA supported the appeals from numerous associations for lawmakers to make amendments to the Interpretation Act 2005, Chapter 61.
She noted that several associations had come forward to request the Land and Survey Department (JTS), in particular, to enable children of mixed marriages to inherit their ancestral land.
She also said many of SEA’s members had faced issues with the National Registration Department (JPN) and JTS’ increasingly exclusive rulings on native status, and therefore supported calls to request state government lawmakers to clarify the matter.
“To claim native status is not just for ancestral land matters, but one must be sincere and genuine to acquire or deem native status and abide by native practices and native laws,” said Rundi who is Kemena assemblyman.
Meanwhile, Assistant Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn also expressed his agreement with the matters raised by SEA.
“I believe the current state government is seriously deliberating on the same matters for several times. It is a question of getting opinions of the native communities and fine-tuning any amendments that may be proposed,” he said.
He believed that a Bill on the amendments would be introduced in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) soon.
