KOTA KINABALU: Communal titles in Sabah will be scrapped and entitled owners will be given individual land titles, said chief minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

He said the communal title introduced by the previous Barisan Nasional government for the landless, was neither feasible nor beneficial to the holders.

“For those with the communal titles issued before this, restructurings will begin soon,” he said after the state cabinet meeting here Wednesday.

Shafie said the Warisan-led state government was taking a new approach to ensure that native rights and land for the landless were protected.

“With this new approach, each individual native title will be issued in the name of the beneficiary in the said communal title,” he said.

He said there would also be no more joint venture agreements allowed, but that if the existing joint venture agreements were permitted to continue subject to terms and conditions, renegotiations will be conducted.

Apart from that, Shafie said the individual native titles cannot be charged (sold) or transferred to outsiders.

“Neither can the individual native titles be dealt with in any manner by way of power of attorney,” he said.

“This means the title owners cannot name someone else (who are not their descendants) to have a right to use their lands for whatever purposes (sometimes for business and so on),” he added.

He said these changes were necessary to protect natives in Sabah as land was decreasing due to developments.

He said not many natives are able to attain lands anymore, unless they were rich.

There are currently a total of 96 communal titles covering 152, 268.23 hectares of lands in Sabah issued.

These include a total of 13,789 beneficiaries from 271 villages in 15 districts.

Out of the 96 communal land titles, 45 are without joint venture agreement.

The 51 with Joint Venture agreements comprise 24 with Government-linked companies (GLCs) and 27 with private companies.