By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, July 1: The Sarawak government could allocate a small portion of its RM30 billion in reserves to help cover the cost of surveying Native Customary Rights (NCR) land under Section 18 of the Sarawak Land Code for all Dayak and Bumiputera communities, says Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak.
Raising this, PKR Sarawak information chief Abun Sui Anyit pointed out that there are still thousands of NCR land survey applications remain pending in areas such as Belaga, Baram, Ulu Tinjar, and Sri Aman, along with complaints over overlapping land allocations to external parties before the verification of customary ownership.
He thus called on both the federal and Sarawak governments to strengthen cooperation and accelerate the surveying of thousands of pending NCR applications still on the waiting list.
“Beyond being an economic asset, NCR land is deeply tied to the dignity, history, and cultural identity of Sarawak’s Indigenous peoples. We must ensure that all surveying efforts are carried out swiftly, fairly, and transparently, in line with the values of Malaysia Madani,” he said in a statement today.
His remarks came in support of PKR deputy president Nurul Izzah Anwar’s June 27 call for the expedited surveying of NCR lands, which she said reflected the real and pressing needs of Sarawak’s native communities.
Citing official data as of May 31, 2025, Abun Sui noted that about 1.2 million hectares of NCR land have been surveyed since the New Initiative NCR Land Survey Programme was launched in October 2010.
Of this, 935,760 hectares were gazetted as Bumiputera Communal Reserves under Section 6, while 120,608 hectares were surveyed as individual lots under Section 18, involving 101,271 individual titles.
“She rightly emphasised that legal clarity and recognition of land rights are essential to provide peace of mind and certainty for indigenous communities, especially in Sarawak. This is not just a personal plea but echoes the long-standing struggle of native peoples for recognition and justice,” he added.
Abun Sui stressed that the issue was not merely political but grounded in constitutional guarantees, pointing to Articles 13, 153, and 161A of the Federal Constitution which protect the rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands.
He urged the federal and state governments to act with urgency and sincerity in the spirit of the unity government Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on Dec 16, 2022, by implementing several concrete measures.
These include fast-tracking NCR applications still pending, publishing quarterly status reports by division and district, and conducting regular engagements with Indigenous representatives to ensure the process is fair, inclusive, and free from mismanagement or overlapping land allocations.
Abun Sui also acknowledged the federal government’s ongoing support, which has seen RM282 million allocated for NCR land surveys up to 2024, with an additional RM15 million set aside for 2025. — DayakDaily
