THE plight of Lahad Datu’s Dusun Bagahak who have had their native land in Tungku given to Felda merits serious attention, said Sabah Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Junz Wong.

Wong said he will ask the Sabah Land and Survey Department to look into the claim and decide whether the Dusun Bagahak community have a case.

Wong assured the protection of indigenous rights in Sabah is one of the priorities of the Warisan-led Sabah government.

“I think the government should look seriously into the claims of the Dusun Bagahak. The rights of the indigenous communities must be protected.

“The time has come to stop the abuse of and plundering of Sabah’s resources (by a federal agency).

“Although it has never been easy to deal with the federal government, the new Pakatan Harapan federal government is more open, receptive and reasonable now,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Land spats between the community and Felda had surfaced several times over the years, with Sabah politicians calling for the state government to take back its land from the federal agency after it failed to uphold a land deal from the late 1970s.

Some 209,393ha of land in Kinabatangan, Lahad Datu, Tawau, Nabawan and Keningau were given to Felda under an agreement between then Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh and the federal government.

It included over 120,000ha of land in Tungku, Lahad Datu, of which the Dusun Bagahak claimed ancestral rights to some 2,400ha.

The Dusun Bagahak community is a minority group from the Dusun ethnic group.

Unfortunately, from 1979 to 1984, Felda only managed to developed 106,760ha in Gugusan Felda Sabahat in Lahad Datu, failing to establish settlements among other parts of the federal-state land deal.

The native customary land rights (NCR) coordinator of indigenous rights group Pacos Trust, Galus Ahtoi, said the Dusun Bagahak are trying to reclaim the land from Felda in court.

“The process had been developing very slowly as the community’s representative Robin Salud had not been feeling well,” he said.

Although, remnants of their ancestral grounds still exist, they claimed many have been destroyed during Felda’s planting process, and the work to prove their native customary rights could be hampered.

Free Malaysia Today reported that the Dusun Bagahak had lived on the land even before the British colonial period.

Meanwhile, Senator Adrian Lasimbang, who is known for his work in assisting Sabah’s indigenous people, made it clear that the NCR must be respected, adding that Felda has no business taking NCR land from the indigenous people.

“The previous government had neglected them (indigenous people).

“The new Warisan-led government must fulfill their election promise to recognise NCR land of orang asal,” said Lasimbang who is also one of the members of Sabah DAP’s Native Consultative Council.

Before forming the state government, Parti Warisan Sabah said it will direct the state attorney-general to study the agreement with Felda as part of efforts to reclaim lands not utilised as settlements. – October 6, 2018.