What is an NCR land?

 

Taken from The Broken Shield  http://thebrokenshield.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-is-ncr-land.html

Many people including Ibans themselves do not know what an NCR land is. It is pertinent to publish an affidavit by Nicholas Bawin, an expert on NCR land and his affidavit has been accepted by the courts of the country including the Apex Court. Because of this affidavit, many of the NCR land claims have been decided in favour of the NCR land owners.

Therefore it is important for all of us to know what constitutes NCR land and what our rights are.

IBAN ADAT

The Iban customs and traditions (adat) have been created or prescribed for the pursuance of societal survival and continuity.

“Custom” is defined as tradition, observance, convention, manner, etiquette, ritual, habit, practice, rite, ceremony, wont and rule. “Tradition” refers to custom, institution, convention, ritual, way of life and habit. Tradition includes oral tradition which encompasses the full range of meaning by which Ibans construct social memory, which includes Iban narratives, myths, legends, verbal songs, magic, rituals, ritual speeches, poetry, epic, laws, dances, traditional music, genealogies, stories of old, sacred places, poems of lamentations, boundary marking and augury. It concerns the way Ibans collectively remember their past and make it relevant to the present.

ADAT is, therefore a way of life, basic values, culture, accepted code of conduct, manners and conventions. These broad definitions include aspects of law, moral, religion, custom, habit, etiquette, agriculture and fashion that must be adhered to in order that the Iban could live harmoniously and obtain the favour of the gods.

In Sarawak, only some of the customs and traditions of the Ibans have been codified in the ADAT IBAN 1993. As such, the ADAT IBAN 1993 is not exhaustive of the Iban Adat. The legislative definition of ‘native customary law’ treats customs, traditions and adat as synonymous.

PEMAKAI MENUA AND ANTARA OR GARIS MENUA (MENOA/BENOA)

Traditionally, the Ibans of Sarawak were swidden cultivators whose economy, based on hill rice, depended upon the availability of large tracts of primary forest for maximum padi harvest, forest produce and game. The critical basic prerequisite for Iban society is to have sufficient land and virgin forests available. This is to ensure ample food supply, forest produce such as paku (ferns) and umbut (shoots), fish from streams or rivers, games (jelu), materials for constructing and maintaining the longhouse and resources for domestic use.

In the past, when pioneering families of Ibans opened a virgin forest in an area for farming, they would perform an important ritual known as ‘panggul menua’. It was only after the ceremony was performed that the first cutting of virgin forest for farming can commence. From then onward, the individual families can establish individual rights to the cleared area including forest adjacent to or around the cleared area as their ‘pulau’ area or ‘pala umai’ or ‘pala temuda’ or ‘pala kebun’.

‘Pemakai menua’ encompasses an area of land or territory held by a distinct longhouse or village community and includes farms, gardens, fruit groves, cemetery, rivers and virgin forest within a defined boundary (antara or garis menua). ‘Pemakai menua’ also includes ‘jeramie’, ‘temuda’ (cultivated land that has been left to fallow), ‘tembawai’ (old longhouse sites), and ‘pulai, pala, kebun, pala umai, and payong temuda’ (virgin forests that have been left uncultivated to provide the community with forest resources for domestic use such as timbers for building and maintaining the longhouse or for coffins for the dead).

Where several pioneering villages or longhouses occupied an area of land, boundaries (antara or garis menua or benoa) were agreed and drawn between the villages or longhouses. These boundaries followed streams, watersheds, ridges, hills, mountains and other permanent landmarks.

Only members of a village or longhouse can farm or use the land and collect forest produce or hunt and fish within the ‘antara/garis menua’ of the village or longhouse.

Dr.Jeffrey Kitingan/Cigma-HRP Consensus on the Third Force

Wed, 14th April 2010, Kuala Lumpur

In a 3 hour meeting today night at the HRP office, the Common Interest Group, Malaysia (Cigma) and the Human Rights Party (HRP) reached a consensus of the need for a third force in Malaysian politics.

The East Malaysian delegation led by Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan said ‘the minorities in Malaysia including Sabahans, Sarawakians, Indians and Orang Asli, have common interests as they have been marginalised and there is a need to work together’. He was accompanied by activists Nicholas Bawin of Sarawak, Daniel John Jambun of Sabah, Granda Aing, Kanul Ginpol, and Saidil Simoy.

Among the issues discussed were the presence of 1.7 million foreigners in Sabah which amounts to about 55% of Sabah’s population and who drain resources, Project IC, the disasterous rotation of CMs, the issues relating to Orang Asli in the peninsula which Cigma is championing, the plunder of Sarawak’s resources, the rising of Dayak consciousness and Dayak nationalism, the neglect of the 20 Point and 18 Point Agreements with Sabah and Sarawak, the need for review of the Malaysia Agreement as Britain is also a signatory to the Agreements, as well as the upcoming Hulu Selangor by-election where the Orang Asli form a critical 2,000 votes.

The Human Rights Party led by it’s protem Sec-Gen P. Uthayakumar thanked and briefed the delegates about the discrimination and marginalisation of the Indians including the non issuance of birth certificates and identity cards without which education employment and business is not possible.