SABAH is mulling a policy change to allow the children of native land applicants to be handed over the titles following the passing of their parents, said Chief Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal today.

Some native land applications go back to 60 years ago and the applicants possibly have long passed away without getting their land titles approved, he pointed out.

“We will make sure only the deserving people will get the native land. We will not entertain middlemen trying to get their hands on these lands.

“We want to pass it down to their children and we also won’t allow them to have their identities used by others who are trying to get land in Sabah.

“We will deliberate on this matter soon,” he said after launching the “Irau Bersama Ketua Menteri” in Kemabong, Tenom, some 145km from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

There had been numerous instances of Sabah indigenous communities being evicted from their ancestral lands as they do not native titles.

In some cases, the Land and Survey Department had approved the land to companies where the indigenous Sabahans had waited for decades for their native land applications to be approved.

The Warisan-led government, in part of its manifesto, had vowed to provide land to the indigenous people and clear all the outstanding land applications by them.

On July 9 last year, the state government had abolished the Barisan Nasional-era communal title where the Sabah indigenous people were only made beneficiaries on their ancestral land.

Under the communal title, some portion of the land were placed under joint venture with state and private firms for agriculture supposedly to generate an income for the indigenous Sabahans.

Only the legal aspect where the indigenous cannot sell their lands in the communal title were retained following the abolishment.

At the event, Shafie also handed over 142 individual native titles and also announced the approval of a 1.5-acre land for the purpose of building a fire station and a 4.3-acre land for the purpose of building a police station in Tenom.

Over 6,000 people turned up at the “Irau Bersama Ketua Menteri” event, which loosely translated as “Friendly with the Chief Minister”, with “Irau” meaning “friendly” in the Murut language.

Tenom is the Murut ethnic group heartland in Sabah. – September 7, 2019.