KUCHING, July 8: The Land Code Amendment Bill 2018, to be tabled during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting beginning tomorrow, will introduce the concept of ‘native territorial domain’ and ‘usufructuary rights’ to cover ‘Pemakai Menoa’ and ‘Pulau Galau’ (PMPG).
‘Pemakai Menoa’ refers to territorial domain, while ‘Pulau Galau’ refers to communal forest reserves.
DUN Speaker Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar said the Bill would be tabled by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who is also Minister of Modernization of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development.
“The first reading of the Bill will be on July 10, second on July 11 and third reading on July 11,” he told a press conference after a pre-DUN meeting at Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) headquarters in Bako here this afternoon.
Yesterday, lawyer Dominique Ng opined that the terminology ‘native territorial domain’ in the proposed Land Code Amendment Bill 2018 would include PMPG, from the Iban perspective.
Ng said the misapprehension of the legal term in the proposed amendments had led to objections by the Ibans to the proposed bill.
Ng, who is a former Padungan assemblyman, pointed out that if the bill were to be referred only as ‘PMPG’, it would not be fair to other ethnic native groups who have similar native customary rights (NCR) land but referred to this land by different names.
“The term that is used in the proposed Land Code Amendment Bill is ‘native territorial domain’, and it is an apt general name that describes or can be extended to mean all such native cultural territorial areas, such as the ‘Pemakai Menoa’ and ‘Pulau Galau’ of the Ibans, the ‘Pimuung’ of the Bidayuhs, the ‘Pulau Ramu’ of the Kedayans and Jati Miriek, and the ‘Kawasan Cari Makan’ of the Malays,” Ng told a press conference yesterday.
Meanwhile, Asfia said the Oil Mining Bill 2018 would also be tabled during this DUN sitting.
He said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, who is also Minister of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development, would table it.
“The first, second and third readings will all be on July 10,” said Asfia. — DayakDaily
