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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Extend Investigations on Fake Native Certs - Dr. Jeffrey

KOTA KINABALU - “The MACC and the police should extend their investigations on fake Native certificates and Native certificates which are dubiously issued to unqualified persons which is long overdue to weed out sham certificates that rob natives of their native land rights” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief commenting on reports of the investigations on the non-native holder of the purported Native certificate owning some 300 native titles and ASN investments of more than RM7 million.

That single dubious Native certificate given to a non-native is just the tip of the iceberg and investigations should be widened its scope and net to nab other culprits as well as they are numerous reports of non-natives being registered as owners of native titles.

The issuance of genuine certificates to non-natives is a serious abuse of power and perhaps involve corruption and offenders including the issuing authority should be investigated and brought before the law.

Non-natives owning native lands is a growing menace to the future of natives in Sabah with long-term negative implications if the problem remains unchecked and allowed to continue.

The case under investigation of a non-native holding 300 native titles is a very good example of the consequences of a fake Native certificate on native lands and the loss by natives.

The Sabah government need to be more pro-active in protecting and preserving native lands and to assist natives with their native lands.

The fake Native certificates as well as genuine certificates given to non-natives together with the various land grabs and eviction of native customary lands all over Sabah and the destruction of their crops and plants only show that the Sabah government has failed to protect the natives.

Another growing concern is the growing land areas of native lands allegedly held by non-natives of Indonesian descent with land areas reported to be in the tens of thousands of acres.

The Sabah government and the Lands and Surveys Department should ensure that only qualified natives are registered as native landowners and should not allow the registration to the “Melayu” or “bumiputra” category who are non-natives.   Not every Malay or bumiputra is a native of Sabah.

The government should also establish a mechanism, perhaps a Native Land Foundation, to assist Natives to develop their NT lands and extend the category of land use from “agriculture” to include “industrial” and “commercial” while remaining as NT land.   This will help maintain native title ownerships which are dwindling day by day due to conversion to CL and TL titles.

This Native Land Foundation can also be tasked with owning the 30% ownership of lands reserved for natives which are imposed on landowners of larger pieces of land but abused through manipulation and use of nominees to circumvent the law and land title conditions.   Large plantation companies should also be required to allocate 30% of their land holdings to this Foundation.

The Sabah government should also establish a Land Tribunal which has been recommended and supported by many government leaders. 

The Land Tribunal can serve as a mechanism to resolve land disputes especially for the natives where their lands and ancestral lands are alienated to outsiders, without having to go through the often costly and lengthy court process.

It is pointless and meaningless for the Sabah government to expect the natives to fight for their land rights in Court especially against large corporations when the Sabah government can easily protect and prevent native lands from falling into the hands of non-Sabahans and non-natives.

To further protect natives, the Native Affairs Unit should be upgraded into a full-fledged “MAJLIS ADAT ANAK NEGERI” befitting the status of natives as equal to Malays in Malaya as set out in the Federal Constitution.   The natives of Sabah do not and should not belong to the “Others” category as practised now by the federal and Sabah governments.

The Sabah government can start to safeguard native land rights by extending the investigations of fake Native certificates and dubiously issued certificates and a review of ownership of all NT lands to verify that they are genuinely held by natives.   Otherwise, in the longer term, the natives will find themselves to be squatters in their own land, as is happening now throughout Sabah.

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