There is a need to set up land rights commission in view of the many cases of unfair treatment received by land owners when idle land is developed, said former Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) commissioner Prof Hamdan Mohd Adnan.

In an interview with malaysiakini yesterday, he voiced his concern on the large numbers of unreported cases of unfair treatment in Peninsular Malaysia.

Hamdan, 57, is on the founding team of Suhakam in 2000, and was its most outspoken member. He was one of three commissioners dropped in early May

"Of course, we know the outlying problems with natives and NCR (native customary rights) issues in Sarawak and Sabah. But that's because we frequently hold road shows there," he said.

Hamdan said that problems are becoming severe with "people in the government, including politicians" becoming land brokers.

He cited one of the last land issue cases he handled in Alor Setar, Kedah, whereby a plot of land in a town was to be used for an mosque. Brokers had wanted to compensate the original landowners at RM7 per square feet, when the market price in town was RM40. Compensation was eventually set at RM36.

"The brokers said the reason why they quoted such a low price was because it was agricultural land. It's ridiculous," said Hamdan, adding that the land was eventually used to construct a hypermarket.

Hamdan felt the greatest losers in land issues were the orang aslis whom he said had a natural fear of law and the courts.

"I've had developers coming to me saying that if the natives wanted to challenge [the land development] then let them go to court. Of course they would say that. The natives are not only scared of courts, they have no money to begin with," said Hamdan.

Independent commission

He said a fair treatment would involve providing natives who had used land for traditional hunting a certain allowance for some time. He said it was wrong to relocate native to low cost housing.

"They don't know what to do, so they drink," he said.

On the land rights commission, he said that it needed to be independent and be chaired by experts.

"It all depends on the leadership. You need people with integrity, people who are bold and unafraid to speak up. There would be no problems with hiring experts on land issues. They're around waiting to be hired," he said, adding that the commission should serve to ease the burden of the poor.

Hamdan felt that the incidences of land being taken away to be leased for large scale plantations or logging licenses is becoming a human rights issue, "although not within the contest of our laws yet."

Suhakam, regarded by many as incapable of action, is only able to arbitrate the rate of land compensation: "Whichever manner is deemed by the government as appropriate, land of the rakyat can just be arbitrarily taken away. The decent thing we can do is fight for a good price."

There are over 100 cases in Sarawak alone, filed for land disputes involving natives, land developers and the government.