Dealing with 'idle' land in Sabah: explorations into local strategies of claims- making to customary land

Abstract

In the face of high modernism customary land in Sabah (similar to those in Sarawak and other parts of Borneo) are under pressure to being converted to land use that emphasise wealth production not distribution and efficiency rather than equity of access to resources by citizens. This paper examines pressures experienced by local peoples associated with developmentalism and the strategies employed by them in three locations in Sabah - at Pulau Banggi, Kiulu and Tonged. Fearing land being called 'idle' and tnus subject to being inadvertently converted to other land use (e.g. oil palm), local Dusun and Sungei communities are themselves converting fallow land into land use recognized as productive by the state. Such measures are undertaken because much of the land that are under customary claims are untitled, and they can therefore be viewed as a way of staking a claim to resources amidst a policy environment that is at best ambivalent, at worse, hostile to customary land.