Tuesday 17 October 2017

Sibu Declaration: Community leaders, elders from Sibu, Mukah, Selangau, Sarikei and Betong making their stand on NCR land



SIBU DECLARATION
We, Sea Dayak Iban Community Leaders, Elders And Members from the Sibu, Mukah, Selangau, Sarikei and Betong Division Do Hereby Declare And Affirm as follows:

Sibu Town
WHEREAS Since time immemorial, long before the existence of the Brunei Sultanate along northern coast of Borneo in 1368  and long before the Kingdom of Sarawak was established by Rajah James Brooke in 1841 , We Have Always Existed as Tribal Nations  governed by our Native laws, namely, our Customs or Adat.

AND WHEREAS the Territorial Domain of our Tribal Nations is known in our customs as pemakai menoa which include a landmass, rivers, mountains and forests. Under our Customs, the entire area of the pemakai menoa are our properties over which we have full rights and exclusive possession which we defend zealously against any invasion or intrusion save with consent.

AND WHEREAS we Sea Dayak Iban are amongst the First Nation People of Sarawak. We are also part of the large Dayak communities occupying and living throughout the Island of Borneo including in Sabah and Kalimantan.

AND WHEREAS for many centuries our Sea Dayak Iban ancestors have been pioneering, creating and acquiring pemakai menoa in the lower Rejang Basin ________ [river system]. In the pioneering days of territorial expansion and opening up of pemakai menoa our ancestors, countless conflicts, battles and wars were fought. Peace was only attained after a long period of nation building.

AND WHEREAS the Rajah Charles Brooke in his last address to the Council Negeri in 1915 had prophetically Advised that after he is gone, people with soft and smiling countenance will come and deprive the Natives of their land and make the natives as outcast in their own lands. Therefore, he advised the Natives to protect their lands at all costs . He further Declared that “Sarawak belong to the Malays, the Sea Dayaks, the Land Dayaks, and the Kayans and other and other Tribes.... not us. It is for them that we labour” . In this His Highness saw himself as just a trustee for the natives.

AND WHEREAS our custom of pemakai menoa has always been part and parcel of our customs until today and have also been consistently upheld and affirmed by the Native Courts until today. 

AND WHEREAS in further affirmation of our customs of pemakai menoa, the Secretariat Circular 12/1939 made directions for the demarcation for the boundaries for villages’ communal native customary lands which is essentially pemakai menoa. In pursuance to that, many longhouses have their pemakai menoa demarcated but some have not.

AND WHEREAS when Sarawak became a Crown Colony of Great Britain in 1946 our rights, customs, beliefs and welfare were guaranteed and later written under Clause 8 of the Sarawak Royal Instructions 1956.

AND WHEREAS when Malaysia was formed on 16th September 1963, the Paramount Chief of the Dayak Iban community, the late Tun Temenggong Jugah Anak Barieng cautioned that Malaysia “Anang Aja Malaysia baka tebu, manis ba pun, tabar di ujung” which is translated “Malaysia must not be like the sugarcane which is sweet at the base but bland at the top”. This was a prophetic reminder that we Dayak Iban must not short-changed despite being far from the seat of power.

AND WHEREAS Throughout the process of the formation of Malaysia, our founding fathers have always emphasized on the guarantee to our rights, customs and welfare as reported during the Cobbold Commission Inquiry  and Inter-governmental Committee Report  and finally accorded to in the Sarawak Constitution  and the Malaysian Federal Constitution .

NOW WE FURTHER DECLARE AS FOLLOWS:

1.            THAT our rights to our pemakai menoa are Native Customary Lands or also known as Native Customary Rights Lands [“NCL/NCRL”] which we inherit from our ancestors Shall Be Free from any abridgment, impairment, extinguishment or interference whether in times past, presently, or in the future.  

2.            THAT our customs of pemakai menoa having been practised since time immemorial by our ancestors and still being practised by us now is Neither inferior Nor subordinate to any but existing parallel to the laws of Sarawak including the Sarawak Land Code [Cap.81].

3.            THAT our pemakai menoa as Native Customary Lands have always been and still is part of the laws of Sarawak.

4.            AS a First Nation People in the Country of Sarawak, our Adat of pemakai menoa and all the contents thereof takes precedence over other subsequent claims or rights including those land titles or licences that may overlap with our pemakai menoa. And we also re-iterate our constitutional rights envisaged by Article 161A of the federal Constitution that our pemakai menoa as NCR lands must be given preferential treatment over and above other conflicting rights.

4.2          As First Nation People, We have been Wronged when our Native Customary Land Rights have been made secondary or inferior to rights created by written laws.

5.1          WE Stand Firm Against any attempts to or any changes, modification or alteration to the areas, sizes and boundaries of our pemakai menoa other than our pemakai menoa which we inherited from our ancestors until today.

5.2          NO laws, rules or regulations shall be made, whether in the Legislature or at the institutional level, to change, modify or alter our customs of pemakai menoa.    

6.            THAT any form of acquisition, extinguishment, deprivation, surrender of native customary lands and howsoever it may be must follow the acquisition procedure under section 5(3) to (5) Land Code [Cap.81]) and compensated with adequate compensation with special consideration of the native adat .

7.            THAT the map annexed hereto signifies the areas of our pemakai menoa which we inherited from our ancestors whether recorded or not with any government entity must be respected by the government and all.

Declared And Affirmed This 7th Day Of October, 2017 At Sacred High Auditorium, Sibu, Sarawak.



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