Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu has come under fire for his purported lack of concern over the threats faced by native community in regards to their customary land rights.

The bone of contention was Jabu's comments reported on April 25, stating that native customary rights (NCR) land was an "out-dated non-issue".

Furthermore, Jabu even challenged opposition parties and individuals to lodge police reports over claims that the state government had 'snatched' the people's land.

Deeply perturbed by Jabu's remarks, watchdog Sarawak Native Customary Land Rights Network (Tahabas) chairperson Augustine Bagat anak Sikut expressed disappointment over Jabu's ignorance over the issue.

"His statement points to utter ignorance of the numerous letters, petitions, press statements, police reports and court cases brought by the native communities throughout Sarawak to the government for the violation of their native customary rights (NCR) land.

"To date there are not less than 100 cases filed and are still pending throughout Sarawak involving land disputes between the natives, the private sector and the state government," said Augustine in a strongly worded statement today.

Suhakam's records

He reminded Jabu that even the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) had already acknowledged that land rights violations tops complaints from Sarawakians last year.

"How could NCR issue be outdated or a non-issue if at present these issues remain unresolved and such land continued to be 'snatched' away by the arbitrary issuances of provisional leases for large-scale plantations or logging licences by the state government to private companies over the NCR lands of the natives?" asked Augustine.

The veteran activist added that the government must officially delineate and record NCR land claims, to better resolve disputes in the event of overlapping claims.

Furthermore, the government must also urgently clamp down hard on plantations and logging companies operating on NCR land, while halting the arbitrary issuance of provisional leases, planted forest licences and logging licences.

Compensation must be also be forthcoming for the damages and destruction done to NCR land and resources, added Augustine.

"The authorities should obtain our prior informed consent about a project or the government's plan which involves our native customary rights land to every long houses/village in areas which are affected by such plans," he said.