KOTA KINABALU:. The restoration of the 999-year tenure is due to the judgement of the Kota Kinabalu High Court on 27 February 2020 as widely reported in local media. As such, the State government must refer to and adhere to the court judgement in restoring the 999-year land tenure.
(see link www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/148418/landmark-decision-on-land-tenure/).
In the court case of “Chin Kim Phin vs Director of Lands & Surveys, and The Registrar of Land Titles”, Judicial Commissioner Wong Siong Tung had held that it was illegal to reduce the 999-year leases to 99-year. It was one of several high profile land rights cases taken up by well known land rights lawyer, Datuk Kong Hon Ming. The case was started in 2019.
As of now, it is reliably learnt that the Sabah Land Department has refused to and failed to rectify the land titles belonging to Mr. Chin Kim Phin, a 88-year old retiree, by restoring the 999 years in spite of the court judgement and the Mr. Chin’s efforts to rectify the land titles. This makes a mockery of the rule of law by the Warisan government.
The publication of the court judgement also exposes the hypocrisy of Warisan leaders who only now pretend to restore the 999-year land tenure. With elections around the corner, Warisan is pretending to be people friendly. But the Warisan leaders will never be able to hide the infamous land grab at Lahad Datu Bagahak scheme. The land grab by a private company wss stopped at the last minute because of a court injunction when by two small holders.
In fact, during the court case by Mr. Chin Kim Ping in 2019, Warisan government officers had vehemently opposed the case to restore the 999-year tenure. All the documents proving that the Warisan government opposed the 999-year land tenure are available in court documents available in the public domain.
There is no such 999-year land tenure policy in the Party Warisan manifesto for the last general elections. This shows that it was neither the intention nor policy of the Warisan government to restore the 999-year land tenure.
In fact, the 999-year tenure is contained in Item 7 of Land Reforms of the manifesto of Gabungan Sabah. That is why SAPP has been monitoring the many land cases that are being litigated in the courts.
The 999-year land tenure has been practised ever since the era of the British North Borneo Company as recently recalled in the Archives published in local media (18 July 2020).-
Datuk Richard Yong We Kong, Secretary General, SAPP
