LAND-GRAB INCIDENTS DUE TO 'BUDAYA BUAYA'

SABAH Progressive Party (SAPP) on Tuesday reiterated its pledge to reinstate the '999-year' land lease to private landowners as stated in its Land Reform Policy if it forms the new State Government after the 13th General Election.

Its President, Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee, said this is achievable because he had accomplished this during his tenure as Chief Minister, where he granted it to more than 400 houseowners in Taman Seputeh, Luyang.

"There's no need to amend the laws. The Chief Minister has the power to do so," he said, adding that the State Government has nothing to lose by issuing the landowners with such title.

"In fact, it could generate more revenue through the collection of land revenue. Under the 99-year land lease, the property owners would always be at the losing end.

"Ninety nine years is too short for property owners to fully develop and utilise their property. The bank may not accept it for mortgage or refinancing," he said.

Insurance firms might not even want to insure it, especially when the land lease has only 20 years to go, which is a common dilemma facing many landowners in the State now.

He likened the present government's decision to reduce the land lease for private and commercial lands from 999 years to 99 years, last year, as another form of land grab.

He said the widespread land-grab incidents which affect the native people of Sabah are due to 'Budaya Buaya' (crocodile culture).

"What is the reason behind the many evictions of the villagers from their NCR (Native Customary Right) lands, especially when the said lands were not for public utilisation?

Speaking at a dinner organised by SAPP Kepayan, Yong claimed the land-grab problem has reached a crisis stage with more than 800 cases registered with the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) Sabah branch, where natives occupying their ancestral land for more than two generations have been evicted and their lands given to major peninsula-based plantation companies.

"Land grab incidents have been observed throughout Sabah in places like Sukau, Matunggong, Bangi, Sandakan, Tawau, Lahad Datu, Keningau, Tenom, Kota Belud and Papar and they are still happening now," he said.

Yong claimed that in one of the cases in Kg Sukau, Sandakan, a very senior State Umno leader has been implicated where the address of the company involved in the land-grab was traced to the latter's residence.

"If such a trend is not immediately stopped, in time to come the natives will become refugees in their own land," he said.

He also claimed other policies of the present BN State administration only benefited political cronies such as the river sand extraction business that generates RM150 million in turnover.

He claimed there were previous attempts to control the scrap iron and the bird's nest businesses.

The worst case was the controversial ceding of three million acres of oil-rich maritime territories off Sabah waters known as Block 'L' and Block 'M', to Brunei during the tenure of former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.