Warisan leader misled on land matter: PPBM

Kota Kinabalu: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM)Tawau Division chief, Datuk Nizam Datuk Abu Bakar Titingan (pic), took to task Warisan youth chief Datuk Azis Jamman for making “a misleading statement that over 2,000 hectares of state land have been handed to federal agencies in Sabah”.

Nizam, who is also State Assistant Finance Minister, said Azis intentionally and knowingly attempted to politicise the issue to mislead the people that the State Government had given away a vast area of land to the federal agencies.

“Azis knew very well that most of the land titles handed to the federal agencies on Feb 18 this year have already  been developed with existing public facilities like schools, hospitals, clinics and police stations but instead he chose to twist the facts.

“On Azis’ contention the previous Warisan-led government has awarded villagers with native land titles of more than 10,000 acres to rural folk from 2019 to 2020, it was a fact that those lands issued were surveyed and approved by the Barisan Nasional-led government and he knew very well that the time taken to process these would be long, hence the titles were only ready around 2019 to 2020.

“It is shameful that Aziz and the Warisan government has repeatedly claimed credit for the more than 10,000 acres distributed to rural folks for this period,” he said in a statement.

 Referring to the State Native Land Services Programme (Pantas) implemented in 2011, Nizam said the programme has successfully surveyed the Native Customary Rights lands to ensure the rights of natives to own lands they have lived on and toiled were protected.

The Federal government has allocated RM20 million to the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government this year to ensure more native lands can be surveyed and land titles issued to as many rural folks. Last year, the allocation was only RM7.5 million. .

Meanwhile, Sabah Dayak Group Cultural Organisation (PKRDS) called on the GRS-led state government to uphold and strengthen the Sabah Land Ordinance to ensure state land is guarded for the natives.

Its president, Cleftus Spine Mojingol, in a statement, said while handing out land to federal agencies may be necessary, they hope the hectarage for each infrastructure project would be carefully studied to make sure they are absolutely essential.

“We do not want to see the natives or local Sabahans being forced to make sacrifices or be pushed away to the periphery, like what happened in many villages,” said Cleftus, when referring to one case involving land involving a huge military training camp in Kota Belud.

“We therefore call on the state government to also work on regaining Sabah land. Perhaps major parts of Kem Paradise in Kota Belud could be returned to these ‘squeezed-out’ native kampungs, and the same could be for land in Labuan.”

Cleftus also said Sabah should emulate Sarawak, which is actively seeking the return of its land from federal agencies.

He urged Hajiji and his deputies to ensure that Sabah land that was alienated to federal agencies, purportedly for federal buildings, but have failed to materialise, be immediately returned to Sabah.