Release Date : 28 November 2008

Press Statement
By
Yang Berhormat Tuan Haji Mohd Naroden Bin Majais
Menteri Muda Perancangan dan Pengurusan Sumber
Dan Menteri Muda Di Pejabat Ketua Menteri

I am calling this press conference arising from my previous statement published in the various newspapers on 8 October 2008, with regard to the alleged eviction of 10,000 Kedayan- Malays from the Bekenu areas in Miri Division. I have promised that the Lands and Surveys Department would go on the ground with the villagers to investigate their claims regarding their concern regarding their Native Customary Rights land and burial ground which they claimed were
included in the land alienated to a company.

The Land and Survey Department in its press statement dated 5 October 2008 had explained that the issue raised by the Kedayan-Malay villages in Bekenu Miri only involved Lot 3935 Lambir Land District and Lot 4448 Sibuti Land District. The said area was alienated and issued with a provisional lease to Tung Cheong Sawmill Sdn. Bhd. for oil palm plantation. The Department has confirmed that the land alienated was State land, and not subject to any Native Customary Rights (NCR). Any NCR would have been excluded prior to the issuance of Provisional Lease to the company concerned.

The Government wishes to reiterate that no eviction order had ever been issued to the so-called 10,000 people from the Kedayan-Malay villages in Bekenu, as alleged. The Department and the affected villagers had carried out a field investigation on 14 October 2008 and the investigations confirmed that only one of the four ancestral cemeteries were located close to the boundary of Lot 3935 Lambir Land District, the area given to the said company.

I assure you that the Department will ensure that the burial ground will be excluded from the alienated land when the surveyor carries out the perimeter
survey of the said land.

I take this opportunity to also assure the rakyat that the Government will not take away any Native Customary Rights land to give to plantation companies. Should the Government require any NCR land for Government development projects, we will acquire the land, like any other titled land, through the process of the law. The rightful claimants after a process of verification will be paid compensation accordingly.

This is an obvious case of poor and irresponsible reporting by certain quarters with an intention to mislead the rakyat.