Kuamut natives suffered most under Umno-PBS-Upko alliance says Star leader

By Ezra Haganez
KUAMUT: State Reform Party (Star) man in Kuamut, James Ait, said it is during this Umno-led rule in Sabah, that the Natives especially those living in remote areas had suffered most in term of land-grabs and opportunities in economic agriculture.

He said in Kuamut constituency alone, thousands of natives of the Dusunic group lost enormous sizes of land to outsiders including Peninsular-based companies who were given huge tract of land for oil palm plantation.


"Kampungs that had existed before Malaysia was formed in 1963 also suddenly found to be inside certain Forest Reserve. Such kampungs include Alitang, Mangkawagu, Namukon, Minusuh, Tampasak Darat, Tampasak Laut and Saguon which are dwelled mostly by the Dusun Tambanuos," Ait said in a statement to the media today (Jan 17, 2012).

"If Barisan Nasional is sincere in helping the natives, its state government could have easily excised these kampungs from the gazetted forest reserve for this situation has put tremendous mental pressure to the natives and their families.

"We the natives gave successive governments mandate to rule over us to manage this country, our land matters, our well-beings but sadly this government today have deserted us simply maybe because it is no longer beholden to us the natives.

"I would like to ask the Chief Minister, Musa Aman, why does his government lack in respect to Natives Rights as stipulated in the United Nation Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people (UNDRIP) which was ratified by Malaysia in 2007," he lamented.

According to Ait who is a likely Star's candidate for the Kuamut state constituency, the majority of natives in Kuamut today are disappointed, and that he would be proven right at the coming polls.

"I was told by many of the older folks that it seemed life during British rule was much better in term of freedom and rights to be heard. During British rule, the natives of Borneo lived happily in this land, no matter how scarce modern amenities there were but they had freedom to live," he said.

He further claimed that natives are now restricted to a small corner, in fact being trapped in forest reserve and companies' lands. "They missed the olden days when they could move freely within their customary lands, as the British upheld NCR unlike the current Umno-PBS-Upko-led BN government. They were free to toil their NCR but today their NCR lands have been and are being taken away from them," Ait further said.

"What astonished me and many in Kuamut is that leaders from Upko and PBS have been silenced, not effective at all in protecting us the poor natives. And what startled me more is the fact that an Upko senior leader is involved in a company that have cleared a huge NCR land in Kuamut whereby native villagers had been assigned to a mere few kilometers or acreage of lands along the kampung roads!" he added.

Ait said, Star, under the sympathetic leadership of Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, would definitely help the natives reclaim their rights, given the chance to do so after the general election.

Meanwhile it learned that the Star launching for the Kinabatangan division under which Kuamut is in, is expected to attract huge crowd sometime early next month, February.