TAMBUNAN: Kampung Tiong folk have finally received communal land titles after waiting for three years.
“We can now develop the land as a community with government agencies or the private sector,” said the headman, Jubile Kangkut, at a ceremony here where communal grants for 1,619ha of land were handed to 181 families of Kampung Tiong, Kampung Pialungan and Kampung Widu.
“Based on the quality of the land, we can cultivate anything, including ginger, cacao, rubber and oil palm.”
Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman said the villagers could do anything with their land, except sell it or use it as collateral.
“The purpose of offering communal land is to ensure that people do not sell their land but pass it down to the next generation,” he said, adding that the opposition’s promise to abolish communal titles would result in villagers losing their land to outsiders.
Present were Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who is the incumbent Tambunan assemblyman, state Land and Surveys Department director Datuk Safar Untung and the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Keningau parliamentary constituency, Datuk Daniel Kinsik.