Owners of subdivided land in Batu Kawa receive renewal of land lease

KUCHING (Dec 14): Landowners of Lot 340 at Sejijak, Batu Kawa here received an early Christmas present following the Land and Survey Department’s approval for the renewal of their land lease.

According to DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen, the landowners’ application for renewal was initially rejected on the grounds that there were more than one residential house on the one parcel of agricultural land.

“Lot 340 is a plot of agricultural land measuring at approximately one acre. It is privately sub-divided into about eight to nine sublots and co-owned by about 11 owners who have built their own houses on their respective sublots.

“Such is a common phenomenon in the areas surrounding Kuching city where agricultural lands were inherited through generations with many of the siblings and their descendants all sharing one document of title but privately subdividing their land into smaller sublots and building their respective houses thereon.

“Over time, some of the landowners sold their sublots to other persons and all live together on the land peacefully without any quarrels,” he said in a statement.

The Stampin MP pointed out that the current Land Code still provides that on any particular parcel of agricultural land, only one residential house is allowed to be built thereon.

“On this ground, when the land leases approached expiration dates and when the landowners applied to the Land and Survey Department for renewal of the land leases, their application was rejected by the department as they had breached the land lease condition.

“Under our current Land Law, when the lease of a particular land expires and application for renewal is not approved, the ownership of the land goes to the Sarawak government and the landowners will ‘lose’ their land without any compensation. This was the plight faced by the landowners of Lot 340,” he explained.

He said he was approached for assistance earlier this year when the landowners’ application for the renewal of lease was rejected by the Land and Survey.

“I then brought the matter up in the State Legislative Assembly sitting in May where I highlighted the unfairness and the hardship caused by such a policy.

“Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, in his winding-up speech then, agreed with me and announced that the Sarawak government will approve the renewal of such land leases provided all the structures thereon are residential houses, and not for other purposes,” said Chong, who is also Padungan assemblyman.

However, he said that despite the announcement from Awang Tengah, it was not until late November that the Land and Survey Department formally approved the application for the renewal of land lease of Lot 340 and prepared the renewal document for signing by the landowners.

He said he had brought the documents to the landowners for their signatures yesterday morning.

“It is indeed the best Christmas present to these landowners, after about two years of anxiety of possibly losing their land, now finally they received the approval for the renewal of their land lease.

“I firmly believe that all laws and policies, if their implementation causes unfairness and hardship to the people, the government always has a duty to make amends so as to prevent such hardship on the people. This has always been the stand of DAP and our political struggle,” he said.

He added that the landowners have expressed their gratitude to the Sarawak government for acceding to their request.