Hear the land scam: YIS

DAILY EXPRESS NEWS

Kota Kinabalu: Yayasan Islam Sabah (YIS) has requested the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity to conduct hearings in Sabah on the integrity of Parti Bersatu Sabah's Cabinet Ministers from 1985 to 1993, particularly on the issue relating 906,300 acres reserved for landless Sabahans.

In a statement, the foundation claimed that the Berjaya Government in December 1979 reserved 906,300 acres for local smallholders, signing an agreement to provide some 60,000 landless Sabahans 15 acres each.

However, it was revealed by Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, who was a Miniser in the PBS Government, that "tens of thousands of acres of land reserved for landless Sabahans were alienated to a number of companies owned by PBS supporters.

These PBS supporters, in turn, sold their companies together with alienated land to peninsular companies, the statement said.

The revelation by Kurup was widely reported in Sabah newspapers.

The foundation further claimed that the PBS Government reneged on the 1979 agreement between the State Government and the 60,000 smallholders, and estimated that more than 50 per cent of the land had been sold to peninsula companies.

Kurup also claimed that nearly 90 per cent of the oil palm plantations in the State are owned by peninsular companies.

YIS suggested that the committee consider summoning Datuk Harris Mohd Salleh, Tan Sri Joseph Kurup and the Director of Lands and Surveys, to provide the necessary evidence.