SARAWAK’S native court is struggling to clear cases, some reportedly more than 20 years’ old, Minister in the Premier’s Department John Sikie Tayai said, blaming the backlog on a shortage of magistrates.

“We just don’t have enough magistrates,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“That’s the main reason (for the slow resolution of cases).”

Under the current setup, Residents (head administrator of a division) and district officers perform the functions and operations of the courts.

The 12 Residents are the ex-officio magistrates and presiding officers of the resident native courts, while the district officers of the state’s 45 districts are the ex-officio magistrates and presiding officers of the district native courts.

Below that, the headman court, chief’s court and chief’s superior courts are presided by the headman or “ketua kaum” and community leaders or “ketua masyarakat’ of the respective communities.

In addition to the headman and community leaders, the native courts have one judge who is the president of the native court of appeal, 57 ex-officio magistrates comprising 12 Residents and 45 district officers and 17 contract magistrates.

These 17 contract magistrates are directly under the chief registrar of the native court and they are assigned as circuit magistrates throughout Sarawak.

“Seventeen contract magistrates for the whole of Sarawak is not enough,” Sikie, who is currently overseeing the revamp of the native court, said.

These contract magistrates are mostly retired Residents and district officers and four of them are legally qualified and are members of the Roll of Advocates of the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak.

He said the native court, which has its roots since the rule of Rajah Brooke in the 1870s, cannot depend fully on the Residents and district officers to clear out the cases.

“They are too busy with their administrative duties. With the pace and quantum of development projects that are being implemented, they have no time to help us.

“That’s the reason we have a huge backlog of cases.

The majority of the cases are land disputes and the way natives demarcate their land add to the problem.

They used trees, rivers or rock formations to mark the border of their land but over time, these trees died or the river changed its course, leaving those who inherited the land no clue of where the land is.

“These are the things we are going into when the court is upgraded later on,” Sikie said in reference to the proposal to restructure and elevate the status of the native courts into an independent judicial system like the shariah and civil courts.

In the last state assembly sitting in May, Sikie told fellow lawmakers the study to restructure and elevate the status of the native courts was completed in February last year and the “transformation masterplan” is being readied to be submitted to the state cabinet for approval.

As of the end of April, out of the 17,003 registered cases, 10,583 (63%) have been settled.

Sikie said that was an achievement.

He also said an additional 720 cases were settled in the past year.

These were mainly accomplished through the circuit contract magistrates.

Sikie said the court’s priority now is to clear cases registered before 2014 and cases involving land compensation. – June 26, 2023.