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Sabah Forestry Department chief justifies taking over Kg Iban Merotai ex-logging land

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6, 2015:

Sabah Forestry Department director Datuk Sam Mannan has justified the long-standing Kampung Iban Merotai land issue, saying it was reclaimed as government land as “there is political will to do so” now.

More than 1,000 settlers from more than 300 families have been up in arms over the department’s move to reclaim the 1,800 acres of land in Ulu Landau, Sabah, in 2010,  where they had been living for more than half a century.

A villager claimed they used to have an average monthly income of around RM5,000, putting them above the poverty line, but now earn as little as RM800 a month after being forced to take up odd jobs across the country.

“From 1960, we tried planting rubber and cocoa which came from the government. Then we planted oil palm and we were doing well.

“My father-in-law won state awards for cultivating land. The crops that he gained recognition for were grown on that land.

“Roads were built for us by the government. We were surrounded by plantations belonging to large companies.

“There was even a political party branch there,” mushroom farmer Robert Penggai told The Rakyat Post.

With him was DAP Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament Jimmy Wong who said the settlers were the descendants of ex-police officers and timber camp workers who had settled on the land after it was cleared by logging companies in the 1960s.

“After 40 years, they (the settlers) managed to make a good living planting oil palm. They were living over the poverty line.

“I think their case (right to their land) is more than justified,” said Wong.

He claimed that the Sabah Forestry Department had gazetted Kampung Iban Merotai, which was already being cultivated, to replace de-gazetted virgin forests.

“The government de-gazetted the forest reserve for logging, took their (the settlers) land and gazetted it instead.

“It’s a wayang kulit (farce),” he said, adding that it seemed to be a systematic move to force Sabah natives into poverty.

In clarifying the issue, Mannan said the forest reserve was gazetted in 1955 and consisted of totally inaccessible virgin jungle, before logging started in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

“There was early human settlement there, but as a temporary settlement only.

“Some of the forest workers, mainly not of Sabah origin and not natives to Sabah, decided to stay on illegally and squatted in the area.”

He said the settlers began large-scale forest destruction, burning, poaching and cultivating crops in the late 1970s and were able to do so with political support at that time.

“Then the illegal squatters started ‘selling’ forest reserve lots to foreigners and towkays (businessmen). Throughout the 1980s to 1990s, the department was not allowed to enforce its laws.

“In the end, at least 4,000 to 5,000 hectares of good forests were lost to illegal oil palm plantations and the wildlife was virtually wiped out.”

Mannan said the squatters were traditional hunters and the buildings there were made by illegally felling timber.

“However, due to political changes in Sabah, we were able to convince the present leaders that the mayhem must stop or else the catchment would be gone.”

He said lawlessness would prevail at the expense of the people of Sabah, if they are at the mercy of squatters, illegal immigrants and bosses who financed deforestation and other activities.

“If not stopped, it will be the model to follow and all of Sabah’s forests will end up that way. The law must apply to all.

“The Ibans therein were also given lands outside the reserve by the government, such as at the Sabah Land Development Board (SLDB) schemes.

“They should be grateful that Sabah is so generous. Have they not overstayed this generosity by destroying our forests?

“Can non-Sarawakian Malaysians get land in Sarawak?”

Regarding the large oil palm plantations nearby, Mannan said the nearby corporations belonged to Yayasan Sabah, which belonged 100% to the people of Sabah.

“Are Sabahans now being questioned on the existence of their charitable foundation by these squatters?

“We have been threatened by hooligans, shot at with shot guns, intimidated, among other things, by the illegal settlers or their operatives, but we will not stop restoring the forests,” he said, referring to annual reports on the department’s website.

“How can thieves of public resources demand redress for crimes they themselves committed?