BY ANASATHIA JENIS
BAU: A dream that Kampung Skio village chief, Michael Dang Sui, holds most dear is to ensure that every villager has his or her land title to increase its value and ensure the property is preserved for future generations.
Thanks to the native customary rights (NCR) land survey initiative being carried out in Sarawak, the dream is now slowly becoming a reality.
“Of course, the villagers and I are very happy that after decades of pushing (to obtain the land titles)…that’s why we cooperated fully with authorities to ensure this process (NCR land survey) will run smoothly,” the 63-year-old armed forces veteran told Bernama recently.
Unable to hide the joy on his face, he said that the land titles will not only open up more opportunities for the land owners to increase their income by working the land, but will also enable them to apply for government assistance, such as facility under the Rumah Mesra Rakyat (RM) housing scheme.
“By giving the land titles, it is like a form of assistance for the low-income group who own land but have financial problems to get financing and loans to buy their first home or build their own house,” he added.
A villager, Chita Tiew, 66, said he could now breathe a sign of relief to finally be able to get the title for his land as it made him feel more secured of the property being inherited by his children and also enabled him to develop the land on his own or through cooperation with the relevant agencies.
“I am really happy even though it is still in the process … we have long waited to get the land grants, and to expedite the matter, I and some villagers went down to Kuching to meet the relevant quarters, including the elected representatives, Land and Survey officers, as well as the National Dayak Bidayuh Association to seek their help,” he added.
As village leaders, Chita and Michael, are thinking beyond just the land titles, and considering other methods of optimising their income from the NCR land.
Partnerships with private concerns and government agencies to develop the land for agricultural purposes, including oil palm and rubber through leases are among the plans they are currently examining.
“For example, now we have planted oil palm. Although it doesn’t yield that much, every year the company will pay bonus…the total we will receive depends on how much land there is and this can add to the household income because the yield increases annually,” he said, adding that he had plans to increase the variety of crops on his land after obtaining the land title.
Chita and Michael hoped that the land owners in the village would focus on developing their land and not sell them off so that the property could be inherited by their future generation.
Meanwhile, Sarawak Land and Survey Department (JTS) director Datuk Abdullah Julaihi said so far, 1.005 million hectares of NCR land had been surveyed from only 260,000 hectares until 2010.
“The new NCR land survey initiative involves two stages of implementation with the land owners having to identify the borders of each parcel of their land in the area that has been gazetted under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code before individual titles are issued (under Section 18 of the same code),” he told Bernama.
Under the new measurement’s efficient and effective strategy and with assistance from land owners, the department aims to measure 5,000 hectares for perimeter lots and 3,000 hectares for individual lots annually.
Currently, under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code, 780,203 hectares of communally-owned land has been gazetted while in stage two, under Section 18 of the same code, 60,000 hectares of land have been gazetted.
Abdullah said the NCR land survey process has been moving along well with the department adopting three main concepts, communicating with land owners respectfully, factually and with integrity.
“We will send our officers to discuss and inform them about what we need them to do and what we are doing. This is what we view as cooperation between both parties,” he said.
In addition to geographical factors, uncertain weather also affects the time taken and slows down the survey process in certain areas, which was compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic that began two years ago.
“We are optimistic and proud with the efforts by the JTS staff to help the Sarawak Bumiputera community to obtain their land titles and to give them (land owners) the chance to develop the land,” he added. – Bernama
