THE Sarawak government is widely expected to amend its Land Code later this year to give the state’s native ethnic Dayaks “the force of law” needed in their claims of land ownership, said a source close to the committee in charge of drafting the amendments.

Traditionally, the Dayak community claim ownership of land in the form of “pemakai menoa” (territorial domain) and “pulau galau” (communal forest reserves).

However, their native customary rights (NCR) were dealt a blow when the Federal Court ruled in December that the creation of the pemakai menoa and pulau galau has no force of law in Sarawak.

The Court of Appeal upheld the ruling, saying that although the common law recognises unregistered native customs, the state statutes and orders or proclamation made by the Rajahs and subsequently by the legislature of Sarawak did not appear to have recognised the custom of pemakai menoa and pulau galau.

The ruling reportedly resulted in increased confrontations, some of which have boiled over into violence, between native landowners who are unaware of the ruling, and timber and plantation companies that had been given concession rights on the disputed land.

In response to the growing tensions, a committee made up of Dayak NCR land lawyers and chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah was formed to work on recommendations to amend existing laws with the aim of according native groups legal rights to their lands.

A source said that the Pemakai Menoa and Pulau Galau (PMPG) committee had completed its work and made recommendations to amend the Land Code.

“We have been made to understand that the amendment cannot be made in next month’s sitting of the assembly as the proposal had not been forwarded to the Cabinet for discussion,” a source close to PMPG committee told The Malaysian Insight.

In June last year, a prominent land activist in Miri, Bill Kayong, was shot dead at a traffic light intersection in the oil refining town of Lutong.

The 43-year-old was the political secretary to Miri MP Dr Michael Teo, and PKR candidate for Bekenu in last year’s state election.

The son of a oil palm plantation owner and his henchmen are on trial for the killing.

Uggah was reported to have said that Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg had decided “to give a protocol solution to address the NCR land issue”.

“Expect some good news on pemakai menoa and pulau galau soon,” he said.

However, the state’s foremost legal expert on NCR land disputes, Baru Bian, who is a member of the PMPG committee, declined to confirm that the amendments would be released as speculated.

The Ba Kelalan assemblyman and state PKR chairman said he “would not like to pre-empt the government”, but expressed hope that the government would be willing to accept all recommendations by the committee.

Another prominent land activist, Abun Sui Anyit, said the amendment to the Land Code was long overdue, and stressed that there should be no further delays to according native landowners their rights.

“We have a simmering situation here. The landowners are restless.

“They still think they own the land when legally, they have lost everything.” – April 28, 2017.