KUCHING, Dec 10 — Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah today said the federal minister who suggested that Sarawak should adopt the National Land Code in its land administration was Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar.
He said Dr Xavier was the person who suggested that there should be only one national land code for the country covering land administration.
Uggah said Dr Xavier had said that it was unfair for the country to have three laws governing land administration.
“He had remarked that there was the National Land Code (for Peninsular Malaysia), Sabah had its own land code and Sarawak, too, had its own land code,” Uggah said.
He said Dr Xavier had made the remark at the National Land Council meeting held in Putrajaya last week.
The Sarawak deputy chief minister, who represented the state government at the meeting said he immediately interrupted Jayakumar from speaking further and asked him to withdraw his statement.
“By his own word, it seems, Jayakumar was insinuating that the country should have just one national Land Code covering all.
“If there is no such intention, then why in the first place, did he bring it up at the meeting of the National Land Council?” Uggah asked.
“That was why I immediately interrupted his speech and although it was rather rude of me to do so, I had to stand up for Sarawak,” he said.
Uggah said he decided to reveal that Dr Xavier as the person who made the suggestion after he was challenged in social media to prove that he was “not creating something out of nothing.”
Uggah had last Saturday said a PH minister had suggested at a recent meeting in Putrajaya for Sarawak to replace its land code with the National Code in its land administration.
Uggah, who rejected the suggestion, said the minister who made remark had ignored the peculiarities and complexities surrounding land issues in the state.
