HOLDERS OF GENUINE LAND TITLES ALSO DON'T FEEL SAFE: SIPAUN

Holders of genuine land titles also don't feel safe: Sipaun

Kota Kinabalu June 05, 2012: Land issues in Sabah have reached a level where even those with genuine land titles in their hands don't feel safe due to unscrupulous people always looking for an opportunity to "seize" the land/s from them.

Former State Secretary Tan Sri Simon Sipaun said there was a case in Kudat where land that had been earmarked for a village reserve was applied for by a person and it was approved by the department concerned within six days.

According to him, the Kudat Assistant Collector of Land Revenue (ACLR) informed him of this when he was a Commissioner with Suhakam.

"When I was in the Natural Resources there was a land title that was issued within 24 hours," he said at the public hearing or National Inquiry on Land Rights of Orang Asal/Asli in Malaysia, here, Monday.

Linking this with the Communal Title, he said, the State Attorney-General is not always right when interpreting the laws.

He was referring to A-G Datuk Roderic Fernandez's statement early this year that there was a cut-off date for Native Customary Right (NCR) lands under the Sabah Land Ordinance (SLO).

Fernandez had said there was no provision in the SLO for natives to occupy land after 1930 and claim NCR on it. He also said that a claimant for NCR today must show occupation of the land prior to 1931.

To this, Sipaun said if the Government claimed that the Communal Title is a good system they should have a track record to indicate that it is a good.

"That is why I was curious that anything that is good, other countries that are more advanced than us would have already adopted it," he said.

He said that a participant would only find his name in the title but that was about it. "What will happen after that? If I want to develop my land and I have no title to go to the bank to raise money to develop my land, what else can I do?" he asked.

All these years, he said, the people are so used to having a title to their land. He said there was a suggestion that the Government hold back the issuance of Communal Title for a while until they see that the desired objectives are being achieved.

"Otherwise, we will have all our lands under the communal title.

"It is understandable because you are one of the thousands of names and it is difficult to be identified with your piece (of land) in the jungle," he said.

To this, Deputy Director of Land and Survey Department, Lee Chun Khiong, said the Government came up with the Communal Title to prevent people from selling off their lands.

With the Communal Title, everyone has the right to the land, he said, adding it is for the common use and benefit of natives.

Nevertheless, he said that the Communal Title could be subdivided into individual title under Section 77 of the Sabah Land Ordinance (SLO).

Under the communal title system, the department accords in-situ to the people residing in the area and also surrounding area, he said, while outsider "applicants" would be cancelled.

To a question, Lee said the Land Utilisation Committee (LUC) has the power to approve land applications.

Sipaun then asked whether there had been cases in Sabah where titled land was sold to others without the owner's knowledge.

Lee said there have been accusations regarding such fraud but that it is the police who should investigate the matter.

He said in some cases, the department found that the documents pertaining to the sale of the property have been signed by lawyers, denoting the fact that the transaction is all done legally.

He also said that the department could not go against its adviser, who is also the State A-G. "We are only staff of the department and because he is a legal interpreter, we cannot say he is wrong," he said.

At the moment, there are more than 190,000 Native Titled (NT) lands in Sabah. Sipaun then said that the department should not blindly accept the advice given by the A-G.

"The A-G is only the adviser but it is the court that interprets the law," he stated.

On other issues, Sipaun said the Land and Survey Department should give priority to scrutinise an application for land by the first applicant.

This is to prevent overlapping of applications.

However, Lee said if this is allowed, there is no guarantee that the first applicant is not an unscrupulous person or what the department termed as "professional applicants".

A professional applicant is one who applies for a piece of land and as soon as he obtains the LA (land application) receipt, he sells it to a ready buyer for profit.

Also, he said, the department also does not have in its system which area or land that is yet to be applied for.

He said that by 2015, the department would be using a computer-based application where the land application is not registered without the location being applied for being first checked.

Further on overlapping land applications, Lee said, no approval would be given until investigations have been conducted.

"Moreover, if there are indeed people living there, they won't allow their land to be surveyed," he said.

On NCR land, Lee said that the department has since 2010 speeded up the processing of more than 3,000 NCR applications.

"We really want to speed up processing of the land applications so as to help the natives," he said.