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Ewon Benedick
KOTA BELUD (Nov 5): Communities from seven villages within the Kadamaian constituency continue to object to the decision to gazette Sungai Wariu into a forest reserve on December 8, 2016.
Kadamaian assemblyman Datuk Ewon Benedick said he had received the visit from the action group representing Kg Malangkap Noriou, Kg Melangkap Tiong, Kg Melangkap Kapa, Kg Melangkap Tomis, Kg Melangkap Baru, Kg Podos and Kg Gensurai that was led by Minsin Panis in the objection.
According to Minsin, the villagers re-submitted their objection after a Sabah Forestry Department officer contacted them concerning the survey of the Sungai Wariu forest reserve border last month and after the Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Haji Noor answered the question raised by Ewon during the State Assembly sitting in September that the forest reserve will not be dissolved.
In the answer given, the first class Sungai Wariu forest reserve was gazetted on Dec 8, 2016 through the gazette GN13/2016 involving an area of 247 hectares.
Meanwhile, Ewon explained that in May, last year, he received a memorandum to object from the communities of the respective villages and had raised the matter during the Cabinet meeting on July 24, 2020.
“The Sungai Wariu Forest Reserve has been gazetted before I became a representative of the people in 2018. I was unaware of the existence of the forest reserve until I received the objection from the village communities in May, 2020 after employees from the Forestry Department came to the villages to conduct the border measurement.
“After that, I followed up with the department by meeting them at my office and was informed that it has been gazetted since 2016. My office at Kadamaian with the cooperation of the Community Development Leader Unit (UPPM) and the Native Court Kota Belud had a meeting with the native chiefs and chairman of the Village Community Management Council from all seven villages to prepare the memorandum to the Sabah cabinet.”
According to Ewon, the Sabah government policy under Datuk Shafie Apdal was to remove the village area from the forest reserve which involved strong native land claim.
“Within the 26 months, the Sabah government at that time implemented the policy involving an area of 3,300 hectares of the forest reserve which were dissolved for the purpose of removing 104 villages that were inside the forest reserve. I was proud to be part of the cabinet that made the decision and it was tabled, approved and gazetted by the State Legislative Assembly at that time.
“That is why I brought the objections from the community of the seven villages to the cabinet meeting at that time and was confident that if the dissolution of the State Legislative Assembly did not occur, the native land at the Sungai Wariu Forest Reserve would have been returned to the villages’ communities.
“I followed up with the matter at the September State Legislative Assembly meeting and was told that the Sabah government has no intention to dissolve the Sungai Wariu Forest Reserve. This is the policy of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah government,” said Ewon.
In the meeting with the community action group on Thursday, Ewon said that the dissolution can still be continued if the cabinet changed its policy towards the dissolution of forest reserves that conflict with the community or can be challenged in court through the native land claim by the community.
“If this objection is brought to the court after all the diplomacy processes are taken, I am confident the claim will get the appropriate judgement since the Sungai Wariu Forest Reserve was gazetted in 2016 but the villages have been there for decades and have conducted agriculture activities,” he said.
However, he advised the group to exhaust all channels of diplomacy including the objection process at the district action committee level before the matter is brought to the court if the solution is nowhere in sight.
“I have contacted the district officer and proposed that a dialogue with the government departments and agencies is conducted with the communities of the villages to enable a two-way communication since the gazette of the Forest Reserve in 2016 was conducted without the knowledge of the villages’ communities at that time.
“The district officer has informed that the dialogue proposal would be refined. I will attend when it is conducted,” he said.
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