UpKOTA KINABALU: The Warisan Plus coalition is not sincere in wanting to resolve land tenure issues affecting the rakyat in Sabah.
And what it is doing now is merely election strategy to lure the rakyat into giving the party their support, claimed Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS).
The Warisan Plus coalition’s insincerity in wanting to resolve the people’s problem concerning land tenure was exposed after more than 3,000 residents of Kg Sembulan Tengah and Sembulan Lama came forward about being neglected, says Parti Cinta Sabah deputy information chief Haji Abdul Jalil bin Haji Abdul Ghani
With Sabah again going to the polls soon, she said caretaker Chief Minister cum Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal has been busy going around the state to show off how much he and his party care about the people’s welfare by handing out land titles and gazetting new village areas.
“It’s nothing more than just a classic election strategy to win the hearts of the people. All seem to have gone according to plan until residents in Kg Sembulan Tengah and Sembulan Lama came out to claim that they had in fact highlighted their land tenure problem to Shafie three years ago but he chose not to respond.”
“So, why is he only busy going around handing out land titles and gazetting villages when facing a state election? As for the residents of Kg Sembulan Tengah and Sembulan Lama, he could have resolved their land tenure issue when he was still holding the Chief Minister post. But why didn’t he do it then when he already knew about their problem?” asked the party.
The residents’ plight came to light when their spokesperson Osman Omar Khan took to the media to claim that the previous Warisan-led state government had promised to resolve issues concerning their land tenure.
He reportedly said that residents in Kg Sembulan Tengah have been living in fear of facing an eviction after learning the land has been gazetted for development. As for Kg Sembulan lama, he said residents still remain in the dark as to when their area would be gazetted as a village.
Osman claimed that the residents had sent two memorandums to Shafie three years ago to seek his intervention but has since failed to respond.
According to Haji Abdul Jalil, Shafie and the previous Warisan-led government have lots of questions to answer as to why a plea for help from residents of the two villages has long been ignored.
“Shafie and Warisan took credit for restoring country lease titles from 99 years to 999 years although they were merely complying to a court ruling as any state government of the day would. But when these villagers from Kg Sembulan Tengah and Lama appealed to him just so they could stay for at least ten years more on lands they have been occupying for so long, he has yet to respond as claimed,” he said.
In the same breath, Haji Abdul Jalil said the fears of residents in the two villages are valid as they would become instantly homeless should they be evicted in the near future to make way for development projects.
“When compared with the many people in the interior areas who finally received their land titles recently which Shafie and Warisan had claimed credit for issuing although it was not the case, the residents of Kg Sembulan Tengah and Lama would have nowhere else to go,” he said.
He said some are of the opinion that Shafie and Warisan are giving election goodies mostly to the rakyat in the interior as they wanted to garner support for the party.
“What better way to win their hearts than to give them their long-awaited land titles. But what about the residents of Kg Sembulan Tengah and Sembulan lama? How is Shafie and Warisan going to ensure that they and their children can still occupy the land in years to come?”
“Let’s not forget, these residents had brought their problem to him few years ago,” he said.-pr/BNN
