NATIVES CAN GET BACK LAND IF CONDITIONS NOT FOLLOWED — SIPAUN

Natives can get back land if conditions not followed — Sipaun

KOTA KINABALU June 10, 2012: Indigenous people in Sabah will be able to get back their native land from plantation companies if there are no proper documentations on the issuance of land titles.

Independent consultant of the national inquiry on land rights of the indigenous peoples in Malaysia, Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, said that at the Suhakam public hearing on native land rights here yesterday.

“Land titles can be revoked if they fail to oblige by the terms and conditions in proper documentations.

“If the indigenous people are bringing their protest to the plantation company which has title to their native land to the court, it is depending on the decision of the judgement,” he said.

Sipaun added it is not easy for the natives to fight for their land if the plantation company had started work for a long time with a valid title.

However, they still have the chance to get it back if it is proven they had failed to oblige by the terms and conditions in the first place.

He was responding at a question of the village head of Kampung Baba Telupid, Jitoh Adul.

According to Jitoh who is the fourth generation of the village, 150 acres of the native land in Kampung Baba have been gazetted as village by the Land and Survey Department in January 1997, but a plantation company, IJM Meliau Estate, had claimed that it is the owner of the land.

He said that reports had been made to the police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) but there was no action.

IJM Meliau Estate, which was represented by its manager, Harfin Patiri, at the hearing, said the company had never received any complaint from the villagers about their native lands, but he admitted that they had paid the villagers two cows as ‘sogit’ (traditional compensation) for damaging their burial sites.

When Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam asked whether the company is still keeping the receipt of the compensation, Harfin said sogit is a negotiation between the company and villagers, and the company is not keeping any records on the transaction.