Hajiji (fifth from right) with Tuaran Bersatu Armada leaders and delegates.
TUARAN: Sabah Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) chief Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji Haji Noor has again claimed Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had lied that the land titles handed over during Shafie’s district-to-district tour was an initiative of his Warisan government.
He claimed the land titles handed over by Shafie to the people actually had already been prepared much earlier through the Mobile Native Unit (Pantas) which was initiated by the previous government.
He said Pantas was a noble effort and initiative by the previous government to assist in speeding up the issuance of customary land titles to the people with funding from the Federal Government, following the delays encountered in the surveying process.
According to him, this approach was meant to ensure the issuance of Native Title (NT) land grants for those inhabiting Native Customary Right (NCR) lands could be speeded up to overcome the delays if going through the normal land application process.
“Pantas Programme was an initiative of the previous government with the cooperation from the Federal government for resolving the NCR issue which had been troubling the indigenous people in Sabah for decades.
“Hence, the customary land grants had already been processed through the Pantas programme but which the previous government ran out of time so it was not able to hand it over to the people, and now being handed over by Shafie who then claimed it is the initiative of the Warisan government! “This is a lie. Shafie should stop using the customary land title grants to gain the people support, as now that Warisan’s popularity and support from the people are continuously dwindling,”
Hajiji claimed when officiating at the Tuaran Bersatu Armada Conference held at the hall of Linangkit Cultural Village, Kampung Selupoh here, yesterday.
Hajiji, who is also incumbent Sulaman assemblyman, said the people of Sabah were not blind, they knew that Pantas which had been implemented since year 2011 was an initiative of the previous government. He claimed that Shafie is desperate in handing out the said land grants due to the eroding people’s confidence and support towards his Warisan government.
“Why not doing the handing-over of the titles before the DUN was dissolved? Why only now going all-out and so busy doing the handing-over?” he asked.
Former Sabah Lands and Surveys Department (JTU) director, Datuk Safar Untong, was reported in 2018 saying (Pantas) which had been implemented since 2011 had successfully resolved the state NCR surveying work problems for 36,137 hectares of land as at end of 2017. It involved 21,378 land lots at 92 villages in 16 districts throughout the state where mostly are in rural and interior areas like Beaufort, Tuaran, Ranau, Kota Marudu, Sipitang and Semporna. Other districts are Beluran, Kinabatangan, Tongod, Nabawan, Papar, Kudat, Sandakan, Keningau, Lahad Datu and Tawau, where the surveying works were done by 80 surveyor teams appointed by JTU.
Safar said the programme was funded through a special allocation for NCR land from the Federal government which provided RM20 million a year, including for the land surveying for the issuance of group ownership or communal title grant.