MALAY native landowners in Kg Tambirat in Sarawak have taken their fight against an encroachment and claim over their communal land to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police integrity department.

Some of the landowners and their representatives this morning filed a complaint with the anti-graft busters asking them to investigate any possible corrupt practices by the officers of the Sarawak Land and Survey Department in giving approval to a company to enter the 165ha land and claim ownership, even though the company had lost such a claim in the Court of Appeal in 2010.

They asked how such permission could be given when there was a caveat on the land.

They also complained about the conduct of the Samarahan division police for failing to “take even a single action” to not only stop the encroachment but also intimidation, even though they claimed they had lodged about a dozen reports since last week.

They claimed the company had taunted them as being too weak and too cowardly to stop the encroachment.

The landowners went to MACC after representatives of the company had told them they had the right to enter the land after “paying a large sum of money to the Land and Survey Department” for the entry permit.

“We want police to act on such intimidation. We don’t want what is happening in Simunjan to happen here,” said Ahmad Awang Ali, one of the owners of the communal land, alluding to the spate of violence that had marked similar land disputes in the neighbouring town in the last few years.

“But we have been advised that it’s best to go the integrity department and find out why police had failed to act.”

Awang, who is also chairman of civil society group Native Customary Rights Land Rights Defenders, said the landowners filed the complaints at the Samarahan and Asajaya district police stations – four in the last two days.

Awang said the company had told the villagers of Kg Tambirat that they could claim ownership of the land on the instructions of “orang atasan” (people higher up).

This coastal Malay village, about 36km from Kuching, is home to about 1,000 people whose main occupation is fishing.

They resort to subsistence agriculture during the monsoon season when the sea is unsafe to go fishing. – August 14, 2019.