The announcement was greeted with overwhelming joy by the almost 12,000 people of 45 villages in Sook near Keningau.  

These occupants of 12,820 hectares of the Sook Plain and Mandalom forest reserves are to get communal titles to the land, which has been converted to state land.

 

Sabah Land and Survey Department deputy director Lee Chun Khiong said yesterday 4,265 hectares occupied by 3,400 people of 19 villages in Sook Plain and 8,555 hectares occupied by 8,400 people of 26 villages in Mandalom would be given the titles.

The decision to give the communal titles through the Fast Track Planned Land Alienation was made under an initiative of Chief Minister Musa Aman who wanted to find a solution to the problem faced by the people who had worked the forest reserves for scores of years.

It was taken at a meeting of representatives from the department, community leaders, Sook state assemblyman Ellron Angin and Pensiangan MP Joseph Kurup.

The Sabah Land Ordinance requires that the status of the forest reserve be converted to state land before the issuance of the communal titles.

Kurup, who is the federal deputy minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, advised the villagers not to surrender their titles to unscrupulous people trying to reap profits.

"Villagers must be given priority in land ownership because land is important for them. Look around us. The prices of rubber and palm oil are very good now," he said.

Meanwhile, Pertubuhan Kimaragang Malaysia advisor Abdul Latif Kandok said he hoped that the issuance of communal titles would be extended to Kota Marudu, particularly the Tandek area.

- Bernama