Nine years of struggle and determination in defending their native customary rights (NCR) land has come to a close with victory for 83 native Iban landowners from 12 longhouses in Pantu, Sri Aman.

In Kuching yesterday, the Court of Appeal ruled in their favour in their battle against the Sarawak government, Land Custody Development Authority (LCDA) and two others that had grabbed their land for the planting of oil palm.

The court dismissed with costs the appeals by the state govermment, LCDA and the two others against Masa anak Ningkan and 11 others over 498 hectares of land in Pantu.

The court order will be served on the state government, LCDA and the companies concerned, and the police as well, to move out of the NCR land by Jan 3 next year, one of the plaintiffs, Cobbold John Lusoi, said.

“We have been suffering far too long, we have been humiliated, harassed and arrested in defending our own land against the illegal encroachment by LCDA and its companies.

“Some of us had been arrested several times,” Lusoi said, pointing out that four of the plaintiffs have died since their struggle began.

'LCDA earned RM40 million from the land'

During the last nine years, he claimed, LCDA and its companies had earned more than RM40 million from their land through the sale of oil palm fruits.

“That money could have been ours,” Lusoi said.

Describing their victory as a ‘poor man’s victory’, he said that the native people were, however, happy that they could now attend to their land without harassment from LCDA and arrests by the police.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Dominique Ng, said then High Court judge Linton Albert had earlier ruled the plaintiffs to have proven their land plots to be NCR land and ruled ordered LCDA and the other defendants to vacate the disputed lands.

Justice Albert, who is now a Court of Appeal judge, had also declared that the agreements that were entered into by the LCDA (acting on behalf of the native villagers) to be null and void, Ng said.

The court injunctions obtained by the appellants against the native villagers were also lifted.

If the appellants want to continue with the injunctions, they must apply to the court, he said.

“It has been a rather long  wait, of over two years  since the appeals were heard on Oct 15 and 16, 2012,” Ng said, adding that the villagers first filed their case in 2005 and won their battle after a long trial in the High Court in Sri Aman court in the judgment  delivered by Justice Linton on Feb 18, 2011.

“The victory is a very good Christmas and New Year gift for all of them. For some, the decision has come a bit too late, with them having passed away,” he said.

Besides Ng, the villagers were also represented by Daniel Tajem, while the appellants were represented by Arthur Lee for LCDA and three others and the state government by the Sarawak Attorney-General’s Chambers.