Bloody clashes looming over land grabs

Michael Kaung

The Sabah Land and Survey Department is yet to explain why it gave away a surveyed NCR land to a private company.

KOTA KINABALU: Rampant land grabs in Sabah are making folk in rural areas restive with visible indications of impending violent clashes between the “new” owners and natives.

Warning of possible bloodshed over these “illegal” land grabs, United Borneo Front (UBF) chairman Jeffrey Kitingan has urged Chief Minister Musa Aman to intervene immediately and prevent the issue from boiling over.

“I urge the chief minister to use his good office to intervene immediately before serious and bloody clashes erupt between the natives, who are defending their land rights, and employees of private companies, who are driving away the natives based on the company’s so-called ‘approval’ from the government,” he said yesterday.

According to Jeffrey, who is the brother of Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan, two such cases needed the immediate attention of the state government.

He said that one of the cases is in the Sukau area of Sandakan where at least two farmers’ homes have been demolished, which prompted the villagers to confront the authorities and prevent another house from being razed.

According to Jeffrey, an elected representative was seen in his car directing the demolition, saying: “‘Potong lah… apa lagi mau tunggu’” (cut down… what else are you waiting for?).

Land registered but no title

Declining to name the representative, he said the man quickly disappeared when more and more villagers started to arrive at the scene.

“I visited the area and was surprised to see houses among matured oil palm plantation and coconut trees in the disputed area.

“It had been fully planted and developed by the villagers who have occupied and applied for the land more than 20 years in 1989,” he told a news conference here.

The villagers claimed that they had even been supplied with fertiliser and seedlings by the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) government, which ruled from 1985 to 1994, when they opened up their land.

As in many similar cases, their land applications were registered but no titles were ever issued.

According to Jeffrey, a company was allowed to apply for the same area and given approval by the Land and Survey Department leading to the current dispute.

He said that the private company with its financial, manpower and material resources has the upper hand and is driving away the natives by destroying their homes and plantations and sometimes offering them money to leave.

The department has so far failed to satisfactorily answer why it had approved the land to the company when it had already been applied for and occupied by the villagers much earlier, he added.

Stop land grabs

The second urgent case, Jeffrey said, is in nearby Tongod involving at least five villages – Kampung Sogo-Sogo, Koindango, Malagatan, Keliwatung and Lumangkau – and 482 villagers. They collectively occupy an area of 7,230 acres.

In this case, the land had already been surveyed by the Land and Survey Department and the villagers were only waiting for the issuance of titles while they continued to farm the land.

However, they were shocked when officials from a private company arrived with the deeds to the land and asked them to leave.

When they refused, the intimidation started with several outsiders arriving with weapons and causing a confrontation with the locals.

Villagers related incidents where there had been fights between the natives and employees of the company, which had led to the lodging of police reports.

Some of the farmers are now too scared to go to their farms alone fearing they will be accosted and beaten up.

“They are asking, where is our government? Where are the wakil rakyat? Why aren’t they defending the rights of the natives? Are they in cahoots with the companies?

“What happened to our native rights?

“These land grabs must stop,” Jeffrey said, adding that the Barisan Nasional government was destroying its own People First, Performance Now slogan.