THE MINORITY Malays, Kedayans, Jati Mirieks and Vae Segans have now joined Sarawak’s largest ethnic group, the Dayak, to slam the bill to amend the Sarawak Land Code.

The minority ethnic communities, grouped under Badan Hak Adat Melayu Sarawak (Sarawak Malay Customary Rights Association or Baham), have today demanded that the state government withdraw the bill which is slated to be tabled at the state legislative assembly next week.

Baham president Sanib Said, in a media conference this afternoon, wants the bill withdrawn because it said the proposed amendment had not taken the proposals it had submitted earlier fully, particularly on its claims to former land along river banks, sea shore and islands once occupied by the Malays during the time of the sultanates.

The Dayak National Congress on the other hand, said if the bill is passed, it would kill their traditional ownership concept of land while land and human rights activist Peter John Jaban, dismissed the proposed amendment saying “it had not been made for the people” as the government failed to recognise their “adat” (custom).

Widespread outrage

The hue and cry by the state’s indigenous communities over ownership of land acquired by customary practices stemmed from a Federal Court ruling in December 2016 which ruled that the native custom of “pemakai menoa” and “pulau galau” (communal forest reserve) has no force of law.

It sparked widespread outrage as the Dayak said their customary practices were not recognised.

There were street protests, public debates all over the state and a loud demand for the state government to amend the Land Code to expressly provide for the recognition of pemakai menoa and pulau galau by giving them the force of law.

However, from copies of the bill which had been passed to assemblymen for their perusal, the proposed amendment fell far short of their expectation.

DNC angrily reacted to the bill by saying the state government had not only failed to recognise the customs of pemakai menoa and pulau galau, it has just “added salt to the injury”.

“This bill is not only putting an end the customs of pemakai menoa and pulau galau, instead, the government is short changing and downgrading the native rights,” DNC president Paul Raja said.

“Its a travesty of justice, a disappointment and an insult to the Dayaks and the native community” and one which will “truly end the customs of pemakai menoa instead of recognising it”, he added.

‘Totally disgusting’

At the heart of DNC’s grouses are the four key elements of the amendment which Raja described as “totally disgusting”.

The first is to give usufructuary rights to the NCR landowners which was in contrast to their long held notion that native customary rights to land is a proprietary rights.

“Time and again, we have been arguing in the courts that our rights are not usufructuary rights but are proprietary landownership rights,” Raja said.

Usufructuary right means right to use.

Raja said by downgrading our NCR rights to usufructuary rights, the state government is using the law to effectively deprive the natives of their rights to the NCR lands.

DNC is also against the proposal to limit the size of the NCR lands to 500 hectares per longhouse, questioned why there is no provision for the pulau galau and why the pemakai menua and pulau galau need to be applied and the approval of Superintendent of Land and Survey is required.

“This amendment (to limit the size of the NCR land) truly ends the customs of pemakai menoa instead of recognising it.

The end of ‘pemakai menoa’

“The custom of pemakai menoa has been practiced by the Dayaks throughout the island of Borneo, including in Sabah and Kalimantan, since time immemorial,” Raja said.

“By limiting the area of the pemakai menoa, it will adversely affect the longhouses’ NCR lands. In a big longhouse where there will easily be more than 100 doors or families, 500ha is grossly insufficient.

“Even existing temuda (individual farmlands) of the longhouses are easily larger than 500ha,” he said.

Raja added the provision that the Dayak have to apply and get approval if approved by the state assembly would mean “there will be no more NCR lands based on pemakai menoa”.

“By introducing this provision, pemakai menoa no longer exists. Any rights approved by the Superintendent of Land Survey are statutory rights, not customary rights.

“NCR rights are rights acquired under the customs of the natives, not given under statute law,” he said.

Baham president Sanib Said, in a media conference this afternoon, wants the bill withdrawn because it said the bill had not taken its proposals fully particularly on former land along river banks, sea shore and islands once occupied by the Malay sultanates of old and which they are demanding their return.

Recognition of customs

Raja and Jaban in the meantime, have now called on every native, “reasonable thinking Sarawakian” and assemblymen from both sides of the political divide “to rise and not support the bill”.

They both said the assemblymen, the Dayak lawmakers in particular, should insist on a new bill based on the government’s promise – recognition of the customs of pemakai menoa and pulau galau.

“Nothing less than that.

“They throw out scraps, stating that we can use the land presumably until someone else decides otherwise.

“This is not our adat (custom),” Jaban said in reference to the usufractuary rights.

Former MP and prominent land rights lawyer Harrison Ngau is calling for “an urgent meeting” in Miri tonight (July 5) to discuss the proposed amendment and for a collective statement of their stand to reject the amendment.

A posting in the Whatsapp social media of the meeting stated the proposed amendment if approved “will leave us natives (Orang Asal) of Sarawak in a much worse situation than now”.

“We’ll lose more of our rights and our NCR lands,” Ngau said. – July 5, 2018.