Native customary rights (NCR) landowners from throughout Sarawak gathered in Kuching on Tuesday night in a continuing statewide campaign to highlight their worries and plight.

At the Kuching event, they pledged a united stand to fight on to defend their NCR rights through the legal process against large commercial interests and policies they view as unfair.

"They're slowly finding out that their NCR lands from Lundu at one end of Sarawak to Lawas at the other end are either under logging, quarrying or plantation activities," Orang Ulu lawyer Baru Bian told malaysiakini today.

He was one of three speakers at the NCR Night attended by about 400 people comprising NCR landowners or their representatives and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which are directly concerned with NCR land issue.

The other speakers were a local human rights lawyer Dominique Ng and Sarawak Dayak National Union (SDNU) president Nicholas Bawin.

Baru said most NCR landowners' first presence is to avoid any confrontation and to negotiate with the authorities for the withdrawal of leases or licences already issued to companies where it affects NCR land rather than going straight to the court.

Failing this, he added, NCR landowners have little choice but to seek recourse through the courts, even though litigation is a time-consuming process. "But they're now prepared for it."

It is learnt that there are now more than 140 such cases already filed in the courts throughout Sarawak, and Baru himself handles at least a dozen or so of such cases to defend their NCR rights.

Experiences in Sabah

Representatives from a Kadazandusun NGO known as Pacos were also present to share their experiences with their Sarawak counterparts regarding native land rights problems in Sabah. They have gone to court to challenge the authority in one such case in their kampungs.

Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) secretary-general Nicholas Mujah, a member of the organizing committee, told malaysiakini said one of the main aims of Tuesday gathering was to create greater awareness among the NCR landowners of their rights.

"Many of them have urged that more such gatherings be held," he said, adding that the next road show will possibly be held in Sibu early next year, a move that is seen as exerting pressure on the government not to ignore the plight of NCR landowners and to withdraw or cancel any permit affecting NCR lands anyway in Sarawak.

The seminar was organised by Tanah Adat Hak Bansa Asal Sarawak (Tahabas), a local community NGO and supported by such NGOs as Borneo Institute Research Malaysia (Brimas), Sadia and Sarawak Dayak Development Association (Sadda). The first seminar was held in Miri earlier this year, and also attended by a large number of people from all over Sarawak.

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini 's Sarawak-based stringer.