Villagers Decry Govt Approval Despite Pending Court Appeal

Casey Lee

Natives from nine villagers are disputing the Land and Survey Department's decision to set aside a ruling by the Assistant Collector of Land Revenues (ACLR) of Beluran with regards to their NCR land.

KOTA KINABALU: A group of villagers living in a remote area in Sabah are seeking justice after a private company encroached on their land with the approval of the state government despite a pending court appeal.

The group of nine travelled by boat and vehicles from the interior of the state to the town of Kota Marudu, 130km away, before making their way to the state capital at their own expense.

The villages are crying foul after they discovered the government had granted a title for a 500-acre plot of land to the private company which had begun clearing it and planting oil palm.

The villagers claimed the company is encroaching into their native customary rights (NCR) land and that the approval by the State Land and Survey Department was made while a court appeal over the disputed land remains pending.

Nine villagers from Kampung Lankang, Paitan in Beluran, represented by their counsel Kong Hong Ming, who is also a senior Sabah PKR leaders, filed for a judicial review at the Kota Kinabalu High Court here, to quash the approval of the title.

The native villagers who filed the motion and appeal for a judicial review are Jastin Sansalu, Asyu bin Na’ang, Sanyuah Na’ang, Nawas bin Iduk, Iduk Mayabing, Rasduh Rasmin, Ransuni bte Na’ang, Paulus Iduk and Naang Samintar.

Both the motion and summons named the director of the Sabah Land and Surveys Department, Lee Chun Kiong, as the first respondent and Chua Hee Hung of the plantation company as second respondent.

No Legal Justification

According to the papers provided to FMT, the natives are disputing the decision of the department to set aside a ruling by the Assistant Collector of Land Revenues (ACLR) of Beluran which had ruled in July last year that 49 acres of customary land be removed from the 500 acres for encroaching into their native customary land.

The government, Chua and Lee have filed an appeal against the ruling to the Land and Survey Department in August of the same year.

Despite the appeal being still pending, the Land and Survey Department issued a Letter of Offer To Alienate the said land in December and only later issued a decision on the appeal which set aside the decision of the ACLR in April 2011.

The natives want the court to declare the decision by the department against the ACLR finding to be declared null and void and the decision of the Assistant Collector to be upheld.

They are arguing that the director had no legal justification to act otherwise and had contravened Section 42 of the Land Ordinance and want the court to force him to hear and deliver his decision on the appeals of the 2nd respondent (Chua) dated Aug 17 2010.

They want the court to prohibit the Land and Survey Department director from processing, issuing and or registering the land title to the 2nd respondent’s land application at Kampung Lakang, Paitan, Beluran until the final disposal of the appeals or until further order of the Court.

The villagers also want the court to stop the company from entering the land until the final disposal of the appeals or until further order of the court.

The villagers told FMT that a company owned by Chua had already moved in with machineries and cleared the land, destroying their crops and plantations in the process, to be planted with oil palm.

As a result of the clearing, villagers said that they had lost their means of livelihood which they rely on for food and income.

Ancestral Land

According to Jastin Sansalu, the affected villagers are the sixth generation of the original landowners who have occupied the land since the times of the North Borneo Chartered Company.

“We are bewildered and shocked that our customary land has been encroached and cleared. All of my orchards have been destroyed including the tombstones of our ancestors to our generation,” he said.

Jastin explained that they had to rely on resources found in their ancestral lands for food, medicine and shelter which had been lost when their land had been cleared.

Another victim, Ransuni Na’ang, claimed to have lost her entire livelihood when planters from the company destroyed 1,700 rubber and fruit trees that she had survived on.

“I’m disappointed and sad that this has been allowed to happen and I cannot imagine my life without my land even though I do not have a family,” she said.

She had been working the land on her own since 2005.

The villagers returned to their village today after spending three days in the state capital.

-- FMT