FORUM ON CHALLENGE OF NCR LAND

By: PKR MEDIA

PARTI Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sabah is organizing a forum on land issues entitled ‘Land Issues and NCR Land – Law, Policy and Challenges’ on 11th of March at Palace Hotel, Kota Kinabalu from 2 pm to 9 pm, announced by Datuk Kong Hong Ming, the Presidential Council member on land resources and development.

Kong disclosed that PKR’s de factor leader Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be present to deliver his speech at the close of the forum at 8 pm the same night, and members of the public are welcome to the function at the close of the forum at 8 pm.

“The forum is a part of the continuation process of championing and realizing the pre-existing land rights of the native communities of Sabah, which has been an on-going movement for the past 12 years by a group of committed community leaders and NCR activists trained and assisted by non–governmental organizations and volunteers.

“Right to land, to the native communities, is right to life. NCR is key to people’s development, and NCR, contrary to general perception, is broader than merely a right to property ownership. Awareness of the need for the preservation and safeguards of the natives’ customary right in land is not enough without a reformed land policy and specific agenda formulated for implementation with free prior and informed consent directly involving the indigenous communities.

“Though the country and the State of Sabah have developed progressively in the past 47 years relying on the rich resources of the State including land resources, and despite the success in the courts and the decisions, the present government led by BN continued to refuse to acknowledge and recognize the traditional pre-existing rights in land belonging to the indigenous people, lest being protected. Consequently, natives are compelled to enforce NCR claims on a case to case basis in court which were few and far in between.

“This forum will bring together these committed leaders and activists coming from 19 districts in the State including the leaders of political parties, especially from PKR Sabah to share the experience and recent development on native customary rights (NCR) in land.

“This forum also brings together NCR land and human rights activists from the State of Sabah and Sarawak as well as the administrator and ex-co member of the State Government of Selangor, which has implemented programs on the protection of Orang Asli NCR land in Selangor after the taking over of the Selangor State Government by Pakatan Rakyat in March 2008.

“As the organizer of the forum, it is one of objectives of PKR Sabah to have direct interactions with the indigenous people who have a genuine concern for their fundamental rights and the well-being of their future generations.

This forum will serve as a platform prelude to the formulation of reformed land policy and specific people agenda for the protection of indigenous land rights for Sabah contributing as further impetus to the reform agenda in the Sabah Chapter of Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy” Kong said .