'Indigenous' or 'native', Sabah to decide

By Olivia Miwil - January 18, 2019 @ 9:21pm

State Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (2nd from left) said this was to comply with the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples. NSTP/KHAIRULL AZRY BIDIN.

KOTA KINABALU: The state government is looking into possibly replacing the term “native” with “indigenous”.

State Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said this was to comply with the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum had yesterday suggested the replacement of the term “native” which had the connotation of inferiority.

“Whenever we decide to do something, there will be people who will be for it, and there will also be those who will be against such changes,” he said.

“There is a need to reconsider the implementation of the indigenous laws and the structure of the Native Court, including the full use of the Native Law Institute,” he said during the opening of the Legal Year Gala Dinner for 2019.

Shafie also added that the state government created the Law and Native Affairs Ministry to address the needs of Sabah’s indigenous peoples.

“The key efforts of this new ministry over the past few months has been to oversee the process of appointing district heads, native chiefs, village chiefs as well as Chinese community chiefs.

“The ministry has also completed the appointments of members of a steering committee to look into upgrading the Native Court system in Sabah.”

Meanwhile, Mohd Shafie also commended Richard’s efforts in initiating mobile court services in Sabah which to date has disposed of more than 80,000 cases of children who did not possess identification documents.

“This noble exercise of the judiciary’s mobile court programme brings the judiciary to people in rural areas, enabling the verification of the birth certificates that have been registered beyond the 42-day period.

“The mobile court is also involved in corporate social responsibilities such as providing books for poor rural children and adopting villages by arranging with the relevant authorities to provide amenities such as electricity and phone lines,” he said.

Shafie also welcomed recommendations from the legal fraternity on discussions of the rights of Sabah and Sarawak that are enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963.