Nicholas Bawin believes that once Section 5(2)(f) is reinstated, Adat — customary laws — will have the force of law on pemakai menoa (territorial domain) and pulau galau (communal forest), two NCR land categories.
In a Facebook post, he hopes the Dayak leaders scheduled to meet with the chief minister after New Year will settle the issue once and for all.
Pemakai menoa and pulau galau, once recognised, could be put into practice again as done by the Dayak since time immemorial, he said. “Nothing more, nothing less.”
The Sarawak Land Code 1958, he recalled, had been amended many times.
Each time the amendments were done, he said, they gave advantages and benefits to the rich, well- to-do and to those in power and in authority. “It made it easier for the land grabbers to take away NCR land,” claimed Bawin.
He attributed the present situation to the Dayak’s “couldn’t care-less attitude” all these years. “This has brought us this far to suffer the loss of our ‘pemakai menoa’ and ‘pulau galau’,” he said.
Asking if the Dayak realised how important pemakai menoa and pulau galau were to the community, he said most Dayak chose to do nothing.
“As most of us do not bother, the government authorities take away our rights.”
If only the Dayak cared about what their forefathers had established and handed down to them, by the practice of customs and traditions, they could have easily maintained and kept the two categories of land just as their forefathers had done.
However, he said, because the community had chosen to remain silent, their rights over such land had been slowly whittled way by the authorities through the process of land code amendments.
The amendments, he charged, had become the silent tools of land grabbers. “Do we realise it?” asked Bawin.
Referring to the private member’s bill on land amendments introduced by Ba’Kelalan Assemblyman Baru Bian, he said: “It should have the support of Dayak assemblymen because it concerns the rights of every NCR land owner.”
However, he added, “They chose not to support it and this is where they missed the point”.
The Federal Court ruled on Dec 20 that Adat does not have the force of law on pemakai menoa and pulau galau. It held that these types of land were incidental to temuda (cultivated land).
The ruling followed a claim by Tuai Rumah Sandah Tabau of Rumah Sandah in Ulu Machan, Kanowit, and eight others. They claimed that Adat had the force of law on 2,712 hectares of NCR land, “pemakai menoa”, which they owned.
Baru is expected to file an application for a review of the Dec 20 ruling. He expects the review before a new panel made up of judges from Sabah and Sarawak.