Transcript
Eddie Tanago says he hopes the SABL land grab will be an issue in this year's general elections, but admits that logging interests are influential in the political economy, making many leaders reluctant to speak out.
EDDIE TANAGO: I was listening to the Lands Minister as he responded to our 10,000 signature-strong petition we presented last week. He wanted to respond to that. The Lands Minister has actually said, the SABLS, they've done a review into the Lands Act, and they are going to convert the SABL leases into ILGs (Incorporated Land Groups) and registered land.
JOHNNY BLADES: What do you make of that?
ET: We think that doing that will not solve the issue of SABL. They have to deal with the issue of SABL - the leases have to be physically cancelled, and the developers have to physically surrender the leases back, and the land be given back to the people, and let the people decide themselves what to do with their land. If you have those leases still existing, you still have the developer on the land; the land is still occupied by a foreigner and the people are not getting their land back. So first of all deal with the SABLs, deal with the corrupt officials who have actually initiated this scam in the first place. Then give the land to the people and let the people decide what to do on their own land, rather than the government telling them what to do. So what the minister is saying now is, SABL is there, we're just using another way again.
JB: Is it all just about finding a way to make them legal?
ET: It just goes to show that the government is reluctant to act on cancelling the leases. It's three years now (since the commission of inquiry). What also the Lands Minister today mentioned is that they are going to get a private law firm to bring these SABL companies to court. These SABL companies will come to court and they will justify why the leases they're holding on to will not be surrendered. I find it really hard because we already had a commission of inquiry which said that these leases were issued wrongly in the first place. So now we have the Lands Minister saying the government will bring the matter to court again. It's just a joke.
JB: Do you know if logging is still operational on most of these leases?
ET: It is. Logging is still continuing in most of these SABL areas.
