SANDAKAN, Dec 3 ― Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal said today that priority should always be given to local communities when it comes to land-related issues with government-linked companies (GLCs) or agencies.
The chief minister said that there were many cases of land problems in the state where the local communities were forced out of their land after living there for decades or dragged to court to fight for their land against GLCs.
“I’ve asked the state secretary to negotiate with GLCs as much as possible in any event there is a land conflict between GLCs and the people. I don’t want them to fight because of land,” he said when speaking to reporters after launching the new State forestry police here today.
“I know of villagers who have settled on a piece of land for 30, 50, 100 years and then suddenly the government gazettes it as a reserve and they become illegal squatters on their land. To move them out, you will have to move, 700, sometimes 5,000 of them,” he said.
Shafie said that it would be more viable to ask the GLC to move out and compensate them with another piece of land somewhere.
“There’s so many cases like that where the GLCs sue the people ― then comes the general election and then we have to ask them to vote for us after they got sued. I don’t think this is the right way to govern,” he said.
Shafie said that the government needed good policies in how to handle such situations, even though the government had the right ― and the law ― to acquire land.
“We don’t want to wield power absolutely and trouble the people. I’m here as the CM to help people ― to find ways to solve problems as much as we can.
“Let them stay there, be it masjid or temples also. We shall find a way to solve it the best way possible. Let the rakyat hold on to their land,” he said.
