KUCHING: Tupong assemblyman Datuk Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman has responded to PKR Deputy President Nurul Izzah Anwar’s call for faster surveying of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land in Sarawak, asserting that the state government has already been actively addressing the issue for more than a decade.
In a statement published by Free Malaysia Today yesterday, Nurul Izzah urged authorities to speed up the surveying process for NCR land to better protect indigenous communities in Sarawak.
Fazzrudin, however, pointed out that significant work has already been done on the ground.
“I appreciate her concern, it shows she cares about Sarawak.
“But if she had paid more attention to this issue, rather than commenting as if just to tick a box, she would have understood the actual progress made on NCR land, ” he said on his Facebook post last night.
He explained that between the 1960s and 2010, the Sarawak government had surveyed and issued titles for 260,000 hectares of NCR land, before launching a more comprehensive effort in October 2010 through the NCR Land Survey Programme with additional federal funding.
“As of May 2025, 1,203,003 hectares of NCR land have been surveyed using perimeter surveys.
“Once land is surveyed and gazetted under Section 6 of the Sarawak Land Code, the landowners’ rights are protected,” he said.
Fazzrudin acknowledged that the next step of subdividing the land into individual lots presents challenges, including overlapping claims and the need for landowner presence during boundary demarcation, which can be time-consuming.
“Despite these challenges, the Sarawak government has successfully issued individual titles and remains committed to continuing this programme,” he said.
He also highlighted that Sarawak has gone a step further by amending the Land Code to allow the legal recognition of Native Territorial Domain (NTD), which refers to areas inhabited by native communities beyond traditional NCR definitions.
“In addition, since March 2015, we have ceased approving applications for state land for large-scale plantations,” he added.
Fazzrudin said the state is open to investigating any specific cases if Nurul Izzah can provide more detailed information.
“But as the Sarawak saying goes, ‘sik dengar bedok’ – didn’t hear the drum. Still, thank you for the concern. Perhaps it’s because the Sarawak state election is drawing near,” he remarked.
