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State legislature needs to question NCR violations in Marudi and Tinjar, Baram

  • Publication Date | October 8, 2018
  • Document Type | Media Statement
  • Programmes | Forests & Biodiversity
  • Issues | Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Logging, Plantations
  • Tags | Baram, customary territory, Konsep Baru, LCDA, Nanga Seridan, native customary rights, oil palm, pulp and paper
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In Miri today, SAM arranged for two groups of indigenous communities from Marudi and Tinjar, Baram, to meet Sarawak state assemblypersons with the aim of halting the violations of their native customary rights (NCR) by oil palm plantation projects.

Meeting between communities from Marudi and Tinjar with a few Sarawak State Assemblypersons and SAM | SAM

The first group comprises the Iban community members of Marudi. In August this year, SAM released a statement in an effort to assist the community. Although at least 20 Iban villages may be affected by this oil palm plantation project, its information transparency has been very poor. The statement revealed that in February, the affected villagers had already sent a letter with over 30 signatories, to the Chief Minister of Sarawak, the Sarawak Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA) and the Sarawak Ministry of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development, to protest against the project. However until today, the community has yet to receive any response from the state authorities.

This statement also requested for more information on the nature of the project, including as to whether or not the project is part of the konsep baru development model, which the villagers had rejected, after being briefed by state government agencies a few years earlier. However since last year, the Marudi community began to be visited by parties claiming to have received the licence to develop an oil palm plantation on their NCR territories. The people also reported on the development of a nursery and attempts to construct an access road to the project site. Today, there are two blockades that have been erected by the villages to halt the construction of the said access road.

ADUN, Community and SAM Meeting in Miri, Oct 2018
SAM staff showing the location of the oil palm and pulp and paper projects in Baram | SAM

Similarly, the second Iban community of Nanga Seridan in Tinjar, is also asking the same question, as to whether or not the oil palm plantation project affecting their NCR territory is part of the konsep baru development model. They too have written a letter in April to LCDA to raise their objections against the project. They too have yet to receive any response from the state authorities. They too have witnessed attempts to construct an access road, despite the absence of community consent.

The protests of the two communities also raise another important issue. The recent amendments to the Land Code 1958 refer to the NCR as a mere usufructuary right, in contradiction to the judicial declaration that such rights are vested with proprietary interest in the land, protected as a right to property under Article 13 of the Federal Constitution. There is also attempt to limit the size of NCR territories, despite the fact that the judiciary has clearly ruled that such rights owe their existence to customs instead of legislation.

However, with pulp and paper and oil palm plantation licences being freely issued without community consent in Sarawak since the late 1990s, many native communities in the state today have in fact lost and will continue to lose, access to and control over their customary territories. It is then quite an irony to encourage the Sarawak native communities to register their customary land under a communal title, or any other legal process, when the size of land which they continue to have access to and control over, has been in a state of progressive decline.

Therefore, issues such as community consent, the lack of information for affected communities, including maps and the nature of the proposed projects and the progressive intensification of the obstacles faced by native communities today in their effort to have full access to and control over their land, must be seriously discussed by the Sarawak state legislature in November.

SAM believes adequate responses must be sought by the Sarawak state legislature from the state executive on the continued violations of the NCR by monoculture plantations. Likewise, the Sarawak state executive must be held equally responsible in providing comprehensive and transparent responses to its legislature. This is how the new Malaysia must work.

S.M. Mohamed Idris

President

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Testimonials

Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah satu badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang telah sekian lama berjuang mempertahan kelestarian alam. Ia juga mendidik masyarakat tentang pentingnya kebersamaan dalam pemikiran dan tindakan agar alam ini dapat kita wariskan kepada generasi hadapan dalam keadaan yang elok dan terpelihara. Dalam pada itu juga SAM giat membantu golongan nelayan pantai dalam memperjuangkan hak-hak mereka sehinggalah tertubuhnya Persatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING). Nelayan pantai sepenuh masa ini dididik oleh SAM sehingga mereka mampu memainkan peranan sebagai pemimpin nelayan yang meneruskan kesinambungan memperjuangkan hak-hak nelayan pantai lainnya. Sebagai contoh SAM telah berjaya menyedarkan masyarakat nelayan keperluan menjaga hutan paya bakau untuk kebaikan hasil tangkapan nelayan itu sendiri.
Jamaluddin Mohamad Bualik
Jamaluddin Mohamad BualikPersatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Jaringan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING)
During the 1980s, I used to read about the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) in the news. After retirement, some time in 2001, while lazing around, I read news about the construction of a carbon in leach plant using sodium cyanide to extract gold in Bukit Koman. My friends and I visited CAP and we were introduced to SAM and her legal team. We discussed the details of filing a case against the gold mining company and the department of environment with Ms Meenakshi Raman and her legal team. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between lawyers from SAM and many of us from Bukit Koman. We had many ups and downs in our struggle to shut down the gold mine that was causing a nuisance in our village. But, as a community we never gave up because SAM had our backs.
Hue Fui How
Hue Fui HowSecretary, Bukit Koman Ban Cyanide in Goldmining Action Committee (BCAC)
Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah sebuah NGO yang memperjuangkan nasib masyarakat luar bandar khasnya. SAM menerima aduan-aduan masyarakat dan menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapi. SAM telah mewujudkan ramai aktivis-aktivis sosial dan alam sekitar. Pada era 1980 dan 90an SAM sangat dihormati oleh masyarakat dan agensi kerajaan. Apabila media sosial menguasai maklumat maka SAM pun terkesan dan masalah masyarakat terus disalurkan dengan pelbagai cara. SAM perlu mewujudkan aktivis-aktivis pelapis yang muda untuk terus membantu masyarakat. SAM juga perlu membuat perubahan supaya banyak turun kelapangan dan jangan mengharapkan laporan media sahaja. Tingkatkan prestasi sebagaimana pada zaman kegemilangan SAM di era 80-90an.
Che Ani Mt Zain
Che Ani Mt Zain
SAM taught me the importance of social activism and the role it plays in upholding the rights of people and the protection of the environment. In my experience, SAM has never hesitated to speak up in defence of people and their environment, and has gone the extra mile to champion their rights, by helping communities take their battles to the higher ups and even to the courts.
Jessica Binwani
Jessica BinwaniPublic/Private Interest Lawyer
Semenjak kami kenal SAM, banyak pengalaman dan pengetahuan yg kami dapat. Kami telah belajar cara membuat baja asli daripada SAM. Semenjak itu, bermulalah minat kami dalam aktiviti pertanian. Dengan memperolehi kemahiran dalam membuat baja asli dan penanaman lestari, kami juga telah dapat menambahkan pendapatan sampingan kami. Ini lebih baik daripada tanah kami terbiar dan tidak diusahakan. Terima kasih SAM kerana sudi memberi bantuan dan tunjuk ajar kepada Persatuan kami.
Chedo Anak Nyuwen
Chedo Anak NyuwenPersatuan Penduduk Sg Buri, Bakong, Marudi
My journey with SAM started when her community organisers took me to the meet the paddy farmers of Kedah, connecting my growing interest in environmental law with our people who struggle to work the land in the face of pollution, replacement of traditional seeds with commercial hybrids and their accompanying chemical package of fertilisers and weedicides. I then had the honour to work with SAM in the struggle for the rights of the native communities of Sarawak, in defence of their forests from massive logging and destructive mega-projects. In every issue that SAM takes up, she combines rigorous research with the realities and voices of the communities to advocate for policies and laws that care for people and nature. From the courts to the elected legislators to policy makers and implementers and to the United Nations, SAM walks side by side with the communities in Malaysia. How can I not be inspired by the vision and passion of the generations of women and men who coalesce to form SAM?
Chee Yoke Ling
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Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Headquarters)
No. 1, Jalan Joki, 11400 Penang,
Malaysia
Tel: +604 827 6930
Fax: +604 827 6932

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Marudi Office)
129A, First Floor,
Jalan Tuanku Taha,
P.O.Box 216,
98058 Marudi, Baram, Sarawak,
Malaysia
Tel & Fax: +6085 758 973

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