Mawan: SDNU land at Jalan Chawan to be fenced up, cleared

KUCHING (Aug 16): Sarawak Dayak National Union (SDNU) will be fencing up the perimeter of its 4.46-acre land at Jalan Chawan here to prevent further encroachment by squatters.

Its president Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom said after the fencing is done land clearance will be done to pave the way for future development as the land is now surrounded by high-rise buildings and shopping complexes.

The SDNU Jalan Chawan land, gazetted as a burial ground, has been encroached by squatters even though their numbers fluctuated from time to time.

The union will be calling all relevant agencies including Kuching South City Council (MBKS), Land and Survey Department (LSD) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like the Kuching Urban Poor Committee (KUPC) for a meeting to pursue an earlier initiative to resolve the squatters issue once and for all, said Mawan when met here yesterday.

“SDNU is determined to see an end to the ‘fiasco’. The squatters living nearby and on top of the graveyard have been the subject of a study of extreme poverty by the United Nations (UN) group. It’s a total embarrassment.

“We (the Dayak) are not to be made to be extreme poverty specimen. We are better than that,” said Mawan, the Pakan assemblyman.

He also called upon others not to capitalise on the squatters’ colony issue, especially falsely portraying the extreme side of poverty.

“We view this matter with utmost concern. SDNU is somehow responsible because of the current circumstances. Hence, the need to call for the meeting with relevant agencies and NGOs any time soon,” he pointed out.

One of the agendas would be drawing a line of action for the relocation of squatters and liaising with the LSD to identify alternative land, he added.

In 2019, there was an attempt by the relevant agencies and the KUPC to relocate the squatters, and army trucks were on standby to ferry them to a resettlement area at Batu Gong, but the mission was stalled because they refused to go there.

Mawan said he believed most of the squatters were gainfully employed, but the idea of moving to a place with better living condition is not in their mind because the SDNU Jalan Chawan graveyard is near schools and workplaces.

Mawan, who is an advisor in the Office of the Premier of Sarawak (Food Security, Commodity and Regional Development), said the perimeter fencing and revisiting the mission to relocate the squatters were agreed in the last SDNU supreme executive council (SEC) meeting.