KOTA KINABALU, Nov 25 — Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman today told the state assembly that he takes it to heart when peninsula-based companies buy up state land from natives for their own benefit.
He complained that some companies are taking advantage of villagers and buying off their land, and said that the government would never intentionally hold back or take land from Sabahans who genuinely deserve the titles.
“Don’t accuse us of being cruel, and not giving land to the people. I am all for Sabahan natives owning their land.
“When I find out that there’s a KL company who has bought land from Sabahans who have lived there for decades, I call them in, I scold them for taking away the villager’s land and tell them to give it back to the people,” he said.
He was responding to a statement by Datuk James Ratib (BN-Sugut) who was telling the floor about his constituents’ struggles with getting land titles for the land they have been occupying them for generations.
Ratib said that 70 per cent of land in Sugut were gazetted forest reserves and villagers who have lived on the land were not allowed to apply for titles.
Musa, who is Sibuga state assemblyman, said that many villagers apply for land, only to sell it to outsiders from Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia for profit, and then ending up with nothing for themselves.
“This was a problem from before. When I became chief minister, I wanted to make sure we gave the opportunity to the locals to own land but could not sell it. That was how the communal land titles came about.
“They can do anything, work it, harvest crops, pass it on to their grandchildren, but they cannot sell it,” he said.
Musa said that there were non-governmental organisations and villagers who were not in favour of the concept due to their own agenda, adding that these groups would go to great lengths to apply for land they were not qualified for.
“They are not genuine... some villagers lie on their application and say that they have crops on the land they are applying for, but what happened was that they snuck onto the land and planted palm oil in the middle of the night so they can say that they have crops there.
“These are not genuine applicants. I will make sure those who deserve the land, who have lived on it for generations, will get it,” he said, citing as an example non-governmental organisation Partners of Community Organisation (PACOS-Trust) who have vocally gone against the concept of the communal land title.
“So don’t simply say that the government is cruel and is taking land for themselves. This is not true. Check your facts. I am the chief minister. I am in charge of this. I challenge those who want to argue this,” he said.
The Sabah government introduced the communal land title concept (CLTC) in May 2010, largely to protect the native-owned land falling into the hands of outsiders and speed up the land application process especially involving the Native Customary Rights (NCR) land application.
Under the CLTC, a designated parcel of land is collectively owned by identified owners whose names will appear on the title. The land cannot be sold without the collective agreement of every name within the title and also cannot be individually transferred nor mortgaged.
