All court cases involving native customary rights (NCR) to land have been put on hold until September to allow the Sarawak government to bring in topography experts to dispute claims by complainants.

Chief Justice of Borneo Richard Malanjun informed lawyers about this in chambers.

ncr land sarawak and palm oil plantation To date, some 203 cases have been filed and are pending trial, with some going as far back as 1998.

The cases mainly challenge alleged encroachment into NCR land, as a result of the ‘green revolution’ which began in the late 1980s. Other complaints involve alleged harassment of native peoples and physical confrontation which led to bloodshed.

Lawyer Harrison Ngau, who was present at the meeting, said the delay could not be avoided.

“Aerial photography is one (item of) evidence, either in support of or against the natives’ claims. But it is not conclusive as there are other grounds,” he said.

dayak court ncr land “For example, there are customs of the natives having a land boundary regardless of whether the areas in dispute was primary jungle or secondary forest before 1958.”

Cases decided in the native courts between 1970 and 1980 upheld that pulau galau (land reserved for communal use) and pemakai menua (land used for agriculture, hunting, fishing and jungle produce) are part of NCR lands.

'Court waiting for me to die'

Another lawyer, who declined to be named, called on the Land and Survey Department to make sure that its topography experts show up, to prevent the cases from being further delayed.

Landowner Mat Taggon, 68, representing some 30 people from Kampong Sual in Simunjan, expressed disappointment over the delay of their case.

“It is not fair to us who are poor farmers. We came all the way from Simunjan to find that the case has been postponed again,” he said.

In between sobs, he added: “Maybe the court is waiting for me to die.”

Their case was filed in 2006 against First Binary Sdn Bhd as first defendant, director of forests as second defendant and the government of Sarawak as third defendant, for allegedly encroaching into their NCR land.