Kurup, who is a former federal minister, said he was concerned after being told about the one-day special Sabah legislative assembly sitting scheduled to be held on Dec 13.

Chief Minister Shafie Apdal has said the sitting is necessary as the government needs to amend some of the laws, especially the Land Ordinance, to emulate Sarawak and activate the mining and land ordinance laws.

“The Sabah constitution and the Land Ordinance which are rumoured to be amended during this special sitting are both of paramount importance.

“Because these two would affect the people’s interest, I would suggest the government to first engage all stakeholders before tabling their proposals,” he said.

Kurup said he was told the amendment would probably do away with the existing communal titles as promised by Warisan during its election campaigns.

He said if this was true, coupled with the introduction of the new law on land similar to the one in Sarawak, it would be even more prudent for the government to engage all stakeholders.

“These stakeholders would include local community leaders like the district chiefs, native chiefs and persons with legal background,” he said.

A week ago, Sook assemblyman Ellron Angin accused the Sabah government of misleading the people on the issue of communal titles which the state had claimed would be abolished soon. The Sabah government had promised to issue individual titles for the natives.

Angin said he noticed that the individual titles promised by the new administration were almost identical to the communal titles issued by the previous government.

He urged the Sabah government to instead issue communal titles based on native customary rights (NCR) as this was what the people had always wanted.