NCR IS STILL UPHELD

KOTA KINABALU: The State Government, through the Land and Survey Department, has recognised Native Customary Right (NCR) land since the formulation of the Sabah Land Ordinance until today, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

Responding to questions during the question and answer session at the State Assembly sitting on Monday, he stressed that the policy of NCR was still enforced and being implemented.

"NCR claims can still be applied under Section 14 of the Sabah Land Ordinance to the Assistant Collector of Land Revenue (ACLR) despite four provisions in the ordinance formulated on December 13, 1930," he said.

Musa, who is also State Finance Minister, said the State Government had discharged its fiduciary duties at its level to preserve and protect the native land rights and ownership.

"Accusations that the State Government is sidelining NCR land claims and discriminating land ownership for natives are totally untrue," he said, reminding all quarters to stop twisting and manipulating the NCR issue.

"Since it involves the interest of the indigenous people, it is only appropriate for everyone to give their support to ensure NCR issues can be resolved properly," he said in a lengthy response that took up nearly 30 minutes of the one-hour session.

Musa was answering a question by Kunak Assemblyman, Datuk Nilwan Kabang, who asked whether the Government condoned the abolishment of NCR status of an area which had been resided by natives since time immemorial just because it was enforcing the 1930 Sabah Land Ordinance.

Related questions were also asked by Likas Assemblyman Datuk Liew Teck Chan and Luyang Assemblywoman, Melanie Chia.

Last week, Musa had promised that the State Government would be answering all the issues raised concerning NCR in order to clear the air once and for all at the current Budget sitting.

According to him, it took the British North Borneo Chartered Company 41 years to formulate the best land law on NCR, that is the Sabah Land Ordinance, to be applied in Sabah in order to protect and preserve the customary right land and native land ownership in line with the spirit of Article No.9 of the Royal English Charter.

In order to achieve the objective, the British North Borneo Chartered Company administration had included new provisions under Section 5, Section 6, Section 65 and Section 88 in the Sabah Land Ordinance.

He told the House that Section 5 was related to "Government property in land", Section 6 was concerned about "Unlawful occupation not to establish any right", Section 65 on "Customary tenure" while Section 88 was on "No title or claim to land valid unless registered."

Based on these four new provisions, it meant that beginning Dec. 13, 1930, all the State lands and reserves in Sabah fully belonged to the State Government.

Therefore, any illegal occupation of State land (no matter how long) or occupation through Temporary Occupation Lease (TOL) cannot be taken as the right to establish claim for ownership.

Right, grant, interest or transaction of a land could only be considered as legal after it had been registered in accordance to the Sabah Land Ordinance except for land, the ownership of which is being handed down from generation without any documents.

The implementation of the land law on Dec. 13, 1930 had a major impact on NCR land claims in Sabah because before that occupation by natives was done freely and they would be awarded with the land ownership if the occupation satisfied the requirements for native rights land.

After the law was enforced, this was governed by the four provisions whereby the legitimacy of the land occupation must be ascertained through Section 15 of the Sabah Land Ordinance (Customary Right Land Definition).

Musa said the State Government through the Land and Survey Department had since been using the law as the guide to decide on all NCR land claims in Sabah.

In this respect, he said for the past 15 years until September this year, 615 NCR claims involving 1,164 claimants had been received and registered at the Land Offices throughout the State.

Out of the 615 claims, 207 had been recognised as authentic, 70 were rejected and another 338 cases are still under investigation.

Since year 2000, he said 41 cases of NCR claims involving 1,243 natives as the claimants had been filed in the court but 10 of them involving 1,021 claimants had been thrown out and only four claims involving 17 claimants were allowed for trial by the court.

Four cases had been withdrawn while the rest are still awaiting decisions from the court, he said.