Sarawak DAP chairperson Wong Ho Leng has refuted the Marudi-based Sahahat Alam Malaysia's (SAM) claim of the absence of opposition parties in helping the natives over their NCR land problems.

"SAM had never expressed any interest in DAP's efforts to foster and enhance the Dayaks' native customary rights. Many times I had approached them. They shunned from us," Wong wrote in the popular Sarawak Talk website yesterday.

On Saturday, SAM's field officer Jok Jau said with the absence of any opposition party there has been increasing pressure on the environmental group to handle complaints from indigenous groups in the Baram.

"It would seem that natives possibly see us as the only channel to which they could bring their complaints on infringements of their customary rights land," Jok said.