Musa and land grabs

Talk of land grabs across rural and urban Sabah are worrying owners who fear the government may arbitrarily take away their land.

KOTA KINABALU: Despite soaring property prices around Sabah, few owners are prepared to repair their dilapidated buildings. The reason: the all-pervasive land grabs in the state.

The owners of these buildings in Sabah fear that their property will soon be up for grabs.

With the market already reeling from talk of land grabs in rural areas, and development projects that will force thousands to move out of their lands, property owners in commercial areas have broken out in a sweat as their land leases in the town near the expiry date.

They also fear the government might dilly-dally in extending the land lease.

Several shop owners in the city are expecting their leases to expire in the next 20 years and are reluctant to restore or upgrade their battered properties, claiming that it would be a waste of money.

They claim that without an extension of their land leases, the land and property have become worthless while banks refuse to lend money for renovations and insurance companies are reluctant to insure their properties.

With banks unwilling to expose themselves to such risks despite high property prices, owners are in a fix as to their next move.

“Shop owners are scared to repair their shophouses as the government might arbitrarily become the new owners of the shops once the land leases have expired,” Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) deputy president Liew Teck Chan said.

Urgent solution needed

Liew and DAP Sabah chief Jimmy Wong want Chief Minister Musa Aman to address the issue immediately by reverting the tenure of land leases to 999 years from the current 99 for country and town leases.

They said that this could be quite easily done without any delay and without having to amend the present law.

They said it had been done before especially if the original master title of the land had a tenure of 999 years.

“There is no need for any delay because it is only a matter of whether the government wants to honour the 999-year tenure or not,” Liew said.

He was responding to Musa’s recent statement that the state government is willing to consider a request by the Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association to revert to the 999-year lease term, instead of 99 years, for sub-divided titles of property owners in the state.

However, Musa said that the Cabinet needs to discuss the issue first because the 999-year lease requires legislation.

Liew, who is also the Likas state assemblyman, cited the case of a residential area comprising a total of 230 houses which were granted land titles with 999-year lease when SAPP president Yong Teck Lee was chief minister in 1997.

Liew also noted that the premium charge of RM1,000 and annual quit rent of RM90 per house had made it possible for many to own the houses after the abandoned project in his constituency was revived by the then state government.

“It’s disturbing to find that in recent years landowners with 999-year leases had them cut short to only 99 years after their land was subdivided.

“It is unjust to cut short the original tenure of 999 years to 99,” he said.

Years of waiting

Property owners are indeed worried.

They are well aware of one particular case in Kolombong, where the shop house owners have been waiting for several years to renew their land titles which are about to expire soon.

The appeal for extension of the land leases was made in 2008 to the chief minister by the Kota Kinabalu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KKCCCI).

“Until now, there is no news of the application, not even for 99-year lease,” Liew said.

Disgruntled landowners at Kampung Sembulan Laut here also protested last Sunday over the refusal by the government to renew their land leases due to expire over the next 20 years.

The opposition has also questioned the sincerity of the state government in saying it would “look into the matter”.

“The state cabinet has taken a lot of time to look into various issues like the definition of natives, poverty eradication programmes and Borneonisation of the civil service without any result,” Liew said.

He warned that the ongoing land-grabs all over Sabah, where natives were being evicted from their customary rights lands, were causing more worries in the property market.

Unkept promises

Wong is also taking Musa’s assurance of considering reverting to the 999-year lease with a pinch of salt, citing previous instances of unkept promises.

“Don’t just talk only but do it. I challenge him to say, yes. Prove to the people that Barisan Nasional (BN) is truly a caring government.”

He warned that failure to do so would prompt landowners to take legal action to save their property.

“When the state government reduced the tenure from 999 years to 99, it was done without the landowners’ consent and breached the original contract entered with the landowners.

“They should revert to the original 999 years as soon as possible. It’s an obligation to the people,” he said.

Wong said he had received many complaints from worried landowners who said that they had been waiting for a long time to get their land leases renewed. Many were said to have since expired.

One well-known case is that of 15 shophouses in Tawau whose land leases expired more than two years ago though their owners submitted their application for renewal 14 years ago.

By Queville To