Villagers oppose Marudu project

DAILY EXPRESS NEWS
09 September, 2008

Kota Kinabalu: More than 6,000 people in 27 villages fear a government-appointed company's reforestation project in Kota Marudu and Pitas will affect their livelihood. Chairman of the opposition taskforce on the reforestation project, Muslin Andipa, said the Government's intention is probably to create job opportunities for the villagers and make profit at the same time.

However, he said the Government failed to see that in the process of implementing the project, their livelihood would be affected. The villagers raised their disagreement with the project during a meeting between the villagers and representatives from Begaraya Sdn Bhd, Asia Forestry Plantation Sdn Bhd, Pitas District Officer and Pitas Assemblyman Bolkiah Ismail, Some 300 people comprising villagers, village chiefs and JKKK chairmen, attended.

All of them objected to the project, which they claimed would not be beneficial to the community. He said there are about 30,000ha or 75,000 acres within the perimeters of the 27 villages. "If the 75,000 acres are divided among the 6,000 kampung folk, each would only have about 10 acres or so," he said. The 10 acres, he said, are not enough for the villagers who had been living there for more than 100 years.

Citing a similar government project in Bongkol, Pitas, which had involved 10 villages and implemented 24 years ago in 1984, he said the government had intended to develop the land and provide work for the people there. Unfortunately, Muslin claimed it had only created a nightmare for the people in the affected area.

"They lost their right to the land and on top of it, the villagers were also sidelined from participating in the agriculture industries and other government development projects because they don't have any right to the land anymore," he said. Muslin said that not only the present generation lost their ancestral or native rights to the land but the hopes of future generation were also gone.

He claimed the people could not plant commodity crops such as rubber and oil palm because the land now belonged to the Sabah Forestry Development Authority(Safoda). "So, if the reforestation project that has been proven to destroy a community is continued in Kota Marudu and Pitas, we would see a repeat of what had happened in Bongkol," he said.

He said not only the community would be destroyed but also their economy and social fabric. The company, whose application to the 75,000-acre land was approved by the Government in 1998, must take into account the native rights over the ancestral land, he said. He said the people have been living there all their lives and if the company took the land by force from them, there would be no vacant land available left for them.

"They must remember that these kampung folk need the land to survive.

"If it is taken from the villagers, just imagine what would happen to their lives," he said.

Hence, he urged the company to reconsider its options other than simply to gain profit. Towards this end Muslin is confident that the Government would reconsider approval for the project, adding the people are better off developing the land themselves than working for the company. He said the Government should, instead, implement joint rubber projects with the people as this had proven successful with some participants reportedly earning four-figure income.