Sarawak on track to achieve its target of RM12.7 billion in tourism revenue this year

KUCHING, Oct 31 2025: Sarawak is on track to achieve its target of RM12.7 billion in tourism revenue this year, said Premier Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg tonight.

Photo: The Sultan of Pahang (left) was received on arrival at the Kuching International Airport by Sarawak Governor Tun Pehin Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar Friday afternoon.
 

Abang Johari said Sarawak has already recorded tourism revenue of RM8.2 billion as of August.

“This achievement shows that Sarawak is on the right track to achieve  its target,” he said at a state dinner held in honour of the visiting Sultan of Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah and his consort Tengku Ampuan of Pahang Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah.

The premier suggested that Sarawak and Pahang hold a joint tourism promotion as both have great potential to develop integrated tourism packages based on eco-tourism and local culture.

He said through the joint promotion, cultural exchange and strengthening of air and land networks, Sarawak and Pahang will be able to introduce to the world the true beauty of Malaysia, which is rich in diversity.

“When we start operating our AirBorneo services, Kuantan and Kuching will be connected,” he said.

Sarawak Governor Tun Pehin Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar and his wife Toh Puan Fauziah Mohd Sanusi, Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian and Speaker Tan Sri Asfia Awang Nasar were among  those present at the dinner.

The Sultan of Pahang and Tengku Ampuan of Pahang are on a four-day official visit to Sarawak.

 

Peter John urges state government to take immediate steps to resolve disputes over NCR lands

KUCHING, Oct 31 2025: Native customary rights (NCR) land activist Peter John Jaban has urged the state government to take immediate steps to resolve Native Customary Rights (NCR) land disputes that are being prolonged due to bureaucratic red tape, causing immense suffering and injustice to the rightful landowners.

Peter John Jaban: The state government should establish an independent review mechanism to ensure that bureaucratic procedures never override the rights of indigenous landowners. 

In this connection, he suggested that the state government streamline the NCR land recognition process, cutting down unnecessary steps and overlapping jurisdictions between the relevant government agencies.

He also said the state government set strict timelines for land verification, surveying and gazettement.

He suggested that the state government empowers local land offices and community representatives to handle disputes quickly and transparently.

He said the state government should establish an independent review mechanism to ensure that bureaucratic procedures never override the rights of indigenous landowners.

“The state government should also provide sufficient funding to fund the employment of more

magistrates and equip Native Courts with an up to date equipment to upgrade the current

Situation,” he said in a statement today.

He lamented that for decades, NCR landowners have been trapped in an endless cycle of paperwork,

delayed verification, overlapping claims, and weak coordination between the relevant government  agencies.

“Many of them are elderly, waiting their entire lives for recognition and titles that never come,” he said in a statement today, adding that some even lost their ancestral land to encroachment and development while government files move at a snail’s pace.

Peter stressed that this was despite the much touted effort by the state government to revamp the Native Court system, even though a special committee has been appointed to reshape the Native Court system to be on par with the civil court.

“But to-date no positive move has been seen to that effect,” he said, adding that there is even shortage of  magistrates to handle all native and NCR cases in Sarawak as those former magistrates who are over 70 years of age have been phased out.

He noted that only a handful of magistrates are still in service.

He also said there should sufficient funding to assist the Native Court system to be more effective not only to employ more magistrates but for other matters for the administration of justice.

Peter also noted that some cases in the Native courts have been delayed for proceedings and decisions of up to over three years or more due to the acute shortage of magistrates.

He said some disgruntled litigants gave expressed lack of confidence in the Native Court system to serve their rights, adding that the bureaucratic delay is not just inefficiency, but it is also a denial of justice.

“When rightful owners cannot obtain land titles or defend their territory because of slow processes, the system itself becomes complicit in their loss.

“As rightly put by the former prime minister of British the late William Ewart Gladstone who once said that justice delayed is justice denied,” Peter said.

He urged the Dayak state ministers to assist the state government and its agencies and to report on the development of the revamping of the Natives Court system  so to give confidence to the NCR land owners and the public at large.

He said the natives people have heard countless promises of land reform, surveys, and mapping

exercises and yet every initiative gets stuck between departments, legal reviews, and approval

chains that take years to resolve.

“This must end,” he said.

 

PBDS questions Awang Tengah's claim on surveying of NCR land, says should give priority to Section 18 of the land code

KUCHING, Oct 31 2025: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) has questioned the Sarawak government’s claim that over 1.2 million hectares of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land have been surveyed under the first stage of perimeter survey, saying the figures do not represent real ownership or justice for the Dayak people. 

Sanjan Daik: Land rights are not political favours but birthrights protected by adat, the Federal Constitution, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Its secretary-general Sanjan Daik, who is also a practising lawyer, said most of the surveyed areas were only gazetted under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code, which remains state-controlled communal land.

“Surveying under Section 6 is not the same as giving ownership under Section 18. Until the government converts those communal reserves into individual titles, native landowners do not truly own their ancestral land,” he said in a statement today when responding to Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan’s speech on the surveying of NCR land.

Sanjan noted that only 47,443 hectares, or less than four per cent of the total surveyed NCR land, have been issued with individual titles under Section 18 since 2010.

He urged the state to prioritise Section 18 issuance and to include native representatives and PBDS observers in the NCR verification process.

“Land rights are not political favours but birthrights protected by adat, the Federal Constitution, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). NCR justice must be measured by ownership, not announcements,” Sanjan added.

Yesterday, Awang Tengah had said that a total of 1,217,766 hectares (3.009 million acres) of NCR land across the state have been surveyed from the year 2010 to September 30 this year under the first stage of perimeter survey.

Out of the total, he said 938,342 hectares (2.3 million acres) have been gazetted under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code.

Awang Tengah, who is also the Second Minister of Natural Resources and Urban Planning, said so far 105,344 individual lots involving an area of 125,703 hectares (310,618 acres) have been successfully surveyed.

Out of the total, he said 34,122 lots involving an area of 47,443 hectares (117,234 acres) have been issued with land title deeds under Section 18 of the land code.

 Awang Tengah was speaking at the handing over of land titles issued under Section 18 of the land code in Pakan, Sarikei.