KOTA KINABALU: Kemabong Assemblyman, Datuk Rubin Balang, hopes the State Government will resolve land ownership issues affecting villagers staying within the Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) before the acquisition to a new company is done.
He said the SFI was established in 1982 by taking land in Kemabong, Tenom and Sipitang with an area of approximately 720,000 acres, almost reaching a million acres.
“The establishment has caused many disputes between the people and SFI for so long,” he said when debating the 2021 State Budget at the State Legislative Assembly sitting, here, Monday.
He said this is a very large area which has been occupied by the Murut community for a long time.
He went on to name 12 villages affected in the Kemabong sub-district, three in Tenom and 15 in Sipitang.
“The community living in these areas have been there since the 1950s, some have villages, schools, and agricultural crops, while some are ancestral land passed on since the 1700 to this day,” he said.
“Ninety-five per cent of the community are involved in agriculture activities, which means the land is very important for the people in the area concerned,” he added.
He said today, the SFI has suffered from bankruptcy or is no longer able to continue operating and the State Government in 1993 decided to sell it.
“Ten years down the road, the company named Lions Group which took over SFI decided to sell it to a foreign company based in India.
“But then the India based company started doing logging activities in Sipitang, Kemabong and Tenom before returning to India a few years later, resulting in the SFI to be a runaway project.
“This in turn resulted in the 720,000 acres going to the creditors or liquidators who are now entitled to the land,” he said.
He thus hopes the government will help the people in the villages with their land ownership before the creditors or liquidators carry out the transfer process to the new company.
“Two companies, namely one from Malaysia and one foreign company is expected to take over the area and I hope the State Government will be able to help the local villagers with the land ownership before this is done so as to prevent it from becoming a dispute,” he said.
On another note, he talked about the urgent need for the State Government to construct a bridge across the Padas River which links Kg Sungai Paal and Kg Paal Seberang to Pekan Kemabong and other facilities.
He said the bridge is important as a road connection which facilitates residents travel to schools, town as well as to transport their agricultural produce.
He also talked about the need to resolve water issues faced by residents in Kemabong for the past 10 years.
“I have on several occasions discussed the matter with the relevant ministry and throughout those discussions have been given assurance by the Water Department office in Kemabong that the matter will be resolved, yet until today nothing has been done.
“I hope the Ministry concerned and the new Water Department director will conduct site inspection and personally look into the water plant and get this matter resolved,” he said.
In addition, he proposed a comprehensive master plan for youths in Sabah to address the growing unemployment rate due to the sluggish economy brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The unemployment rate in Sabah was very high last year with a total of 5.8 per cent and is expected to increase this year due to the current economic and health situation,” he said.
He also proposed that the comprehensive master plan can include modern agriculture methods particularly for fruit cultivation which has markets from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei, Japan and Korea.
“Perhaps the State Government can also assist our youths to be agriculture entrepreneurs in rural, urban and coastal areas of Sabah,” he said.-pr/BNN
