FINDING the “definitive definition” to describe the native customary rights (NCR) is standing in the way of the proposed amendment to the state’s Land Code.

The amendment is to give the force of law to the creation of the Dayaks’ “pemakai menoa” (territorial domain) and “pulau galau” (communal forest reserve).

“There must be only one definition to describe pemakai menoa and pulau galau” Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg said today when opening the two-day conference for “custodians of NCR land” and community leaders in Kuching.

The chief minister said the definition must not only be precise so there would be no ambiguity on its interpretation by legal practitioners and judges, it must be approved and accepted by all ethnic tribes, including Malays.

There are over 50 ethnic tribes in the state, each with their own unique culture and customary practices.

Abang Johari said the government will table the Land Code amendments only when that is achieved.

He however, side-stepped questions if the draft on the proposed amendment would be ready in time for tabling at the state legislative assembly’s next sitting in May.

Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah, who leads a task force to gather feedback and recommend the amendment, had late last year promised the amendment would be tabled at the first sitting of this year.

“The issue is definition. We will amend the land code,” Abang Johari told the 450 participants, 360 of them community leaders, as he allayed fears that the government was not sensitive to the Dayaks’ NCR rights.

The Dayaks lost their right to the pemakai menoa and pulau galau when the Federal Court in December 2016 ruled that the Dayak have no customary rights over the territorial domain around their longhouses as the practice has no force of law.

The court ruled that the NCR of the Dayak only apply to farmlands that were created before 1958 and not to the forest areas around their traditional longhouses.

The Dayaks claimed the practice of creating a forest domain around the longhouse where they hunt and forage for food date back to the time when Sarawak was under the rule of the Brunei sultanate.

The ruling sent shockwaves in the Dayak community and all of their cases linked to pemakai menoa and pulau galau disputes were lost.

The chief minister, who said the court ruling had “caused anxiety and dissatisfaction among the natives”, admitted the practice of having the territorial domain “existed in our community”.

The legal issue following the Federal Court’s decision, he said, was that the NCR creation of those land had no force of law as it was not found in the Land Code.

“We had two options to give it the force of law.”

He said the first was by legal means, which meant applying for a review of the court’s ruling.

The second was politically by amending the Land Code.

“We chose the political solution.”

Last November, dissatisfaction over the court ruling boiled over as Dayak landowners Dayak civil societies staged a protest in Kuching to pressure the government to table the amendment. – January 24, 2018.