Federal, Sarawak government to finalise mechanism on NCR issue

SIBU: The federal government, with the collaboration of the Sarawak government, is in the process of finalising a mechanism on how to solve the issue of native customary rights (NCR) land in the state, Plantation
Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said on May 13.

He said the issue, often a thorny one especially during elections, were among matters discussed at a recent meeting chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who heads the Sarawak and Sabah Bumiputera Special Committee.

Sarawak is facing a by-election for the Sibu parliamentary seat on Sunday. "The proposed mechanism is based on feedback received by the Sarawak and Sabah Technical Committee, which regularly reports to the Cabinet Special Committee," he said when launching the "Pemimpin Bersama Pekebun Kecil" (Leaders With Smallholders) meeting Rumah Asing Sanyut, Sungei Teku near here. The Technical Committee headed by Dompok is set up under the auspices of the federal Cabinet Committee on the Implementation of Policies and Performance of Development Projects for Bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak.

He said other matters discussed included the appointment of more non-Muslim Bumiputeras from both states into the federal civil service as well as better distribution of federal government scholarships to pursue further education overseas.

"The meeting, also attended by three Bumiputera ministers from Sabah and two from Sarawak, was very positive and the Prime Minister responded very well to the requests by the technical committee," Dompok said.

Starting this year, he said, 200 non-Muslim Bumiputera students from Sarawak and Sabah would be allocated places to study overseas following the implementation of a special quota by the cabinet, with both states being each given five percent of the total 2,000 such scholarships. The steering committee for the Government Transformation Programme in Sabah and Sarawak is also the facilitator of five laboratories in Sabah and Sarawak to help bumiputeras in the two states, particularly in the areas of education, economy, infrastructure, social development and land as well as legislation matters.

On the commodity sector, Dompok said a lot of opportunities were offered to smallholders in Sarawak to participate in the ministry's programmes to raise their income. As a caring government, he said smallholders who cultivated crops like cocoa, pepper, rubber and oil palm, could forward any complaints to the relevant authorities to be solved. -- Bernama