Indigenous rights group calls for PSC to look into land disputes

the star
BY LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: The Indigenous People’s Network of Malaysia has called for the setting up of a Parliamentary Select Committee for land disputes following a task force’s findings on an indigenous land inquiry report.

The network, or JOAS secretariat director Jannie Lasimbang said the PSC could also look into efforts to prop up redress mechanisms such as the Native Title Court or Land Tribunal.

“We strongly urge for the formation of a PSC to monitor the research and drafting/amending relevant legislations and work with the local/state authorities on the Prime Minister’s commitment to resolve land disputes,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.

Lasimbang gave an overview on the issues and conveyed JOAS’s recommendations and petitions to 20 MPs at an opposition party’s office in a parliamentary briefing last Tuesday after Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low announced that the Cabinet had approved the formation of a Cabinet Committee for the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The committee, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyidin Yassin, was to address, monitor and implement the findings of the Government’s task force’s report dated Aug 14.

The Cabinet had approved all 18 recommendations of the task force that looked into Suhakam’s inquiry report on indigenous land rights, except for the setting up of the Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

Lasimbang said the PSC should also examine the role of Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) in developing indigenous territories and look into the drafting of a law and procedures on obtaining free, prior and informed consent of the orang asal when their land was involved in any development projects.

The PSC could also look into setting up the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, she said.