Next S’wak govt called to reform Land Code, recognise ancestral rights, end colonial-era policies

Committee on Native Customary Lands and Lepu'un of Hulu Balui.

By DayakDaily Team

KUCHING, Oct 27: The next Sarawak government must reform the State’s Land Code to protect Indigenous communities’ customary land rights, including ancestral lands that may fall outside the current recognition framework, says the Committee on Native Customary Lands and Lepu’un of Hulu Balui.

In a statement issued by it secretary Denis Hang Bilang on Oct 26, the committee called on all candidates contesting the upcoming State election to commit to surveying and gazetting all Native Customary Lands without discrimination, arguing that the existing legal framework continues to reflect British colonial-era policies.

The committee also touched on the results of years of land surveying despite millions of ringgit being spent, asking which communities’ lands had actually been surveyed and gazetted.

It also objected to the interpretation of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land if recognition is restricted to areas identified through Royal Air Force aerial photographs taken before 1957.

According to the committee, indigenous communities in Sarawak have maintained customary land tenure systems across generations, both before and after Jan 1, 1958, which it described as an arbitrary date imposed by the British colonial administration.

“The British colonial power has long departed, yet their laws—unfair to our people—remain in force to this day,” the statement said.

The committee argued that a government elected by the people of Sarawak should review laws that it believes do not adequately protect Indigenous communities’ customary land rights.

Among its demands is a reform of the Land Code to ensure what it described as justice and fairness for all Indigenous Peoples of Sarawak.

It also called for customary land rights to be restored over ancestral lands that have been granted to companies or corporations, where communities can establish that the areas are their customary lands and have been occupied and used by them since time immemorial.

The committee maintained that customary land rights should not be extinguished solely because of a date established under colonial rule.

“Land is our life and our heritage. Return these rights to the people of Sarawak,” they said. — DayakDaily