KUCHING, Nov 9: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) has thrown its support behind the upcoming Nov 13 rally to stand up for native customary rights (NCR) and protest against the recent spate of court rulings that have gone against native landowners.
In a press release today, PBDSB said as a Dayak-based party fighting for a Dayak agenda, it fully supports the awareness and sentiments of the upcoming rally.
“If it is not us, Dayak natives, to take a stand for our own inherited ancestral land, then who else? If by now, Dayak natives do not come together united as one, then when?”
It pointed towards the alleged trampling of native rights over land by recent court rulings which have created much awareness and drawn participants from various indigenous clans throughout Sarawak towards the rally to protest the injustice.
“The recent landmark case in Pantu which native land owners lost on Nov 7 in the Federal Court showed it is an uphill task for indigenous peoples to reoccupy their own ancestral land as the law now enables the state to acquire native ancestral properties via permit lease by just paying compensation.
“The upcoming rally is to voice out all natives’ grievances as it is not about the money or compensation but the importance of the inheritance of ancestral land, passed down from generation to generation. It is the blood, the survival and life of our rural native people.”
PBDSB also lamented it as a ‘common bitter fact’ that the Federal Court’s ruling in general, gave a significant impression that any native land, NCR or native area land — even that gazetted or recognised as such by the government — still can taken and lost forever.
“Such ruling shall impact future cases,” the party noted.
It called on all Dayak natives in Sarawak and especially those from overseas to unite as one during the upcoming rally to voice out that the continuous loss of ancestral land cannot go on any more and needs to be stopped now.
“The state government must provide an amicable solution to defend our Dayak land and not defend those with provisional leases (PL).”
PBDSB said it was also glad and happy to know that the rally will be under the watchful eyes of the international community as well.
The organisers of the upcoming rally have been granted permission by the police to hold the rally. — DayakDaily
