A total of 53 families in Kg Jimpangah, Beaufort are being evicted from the private land they had been staying on for decades.
Videos showing their homes being demolished amid an escalating land dispute have triggered public outrage, especially after one clip captured a house being torn down while people were still inside.
The footage, widely shared on social media today, shows villagers screaming for help and pleading with an excavator operator to stop the demolition.
In the background, people can be heard shouting for their elected representative, Isnin Aliasnih, to intervene.
It is understood the landowner had obtained a court order to remove the squatters.
But the manner in which the eviction was carried out has sparked widespread condemnation online.
Warisan Vice President Terrence Siambun criticised the operation, describing it as “inhumane and cruel”, regardless of its legal justification.
“This act of eviction is inhumane and cruel even if it is carried out legally. “Where is the compassion? Where is the leadership?” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to Siambun, the eviction affects a community of about 300 people who claim their families have lived on the 13-acre plot for nearly 70 years.
The villagers allege that the land, long considered their ancestral home, was sold to a private company several years ago, setting off the dispute.
“What we are seeing is destruction and betrayal.
“The GRS government often says ‘Rumah Kita, Kita Jaga,’ but that slogan now feels like an empty promise used only to win votes,” added Siambun.
He called on the state government to take immediate responsibility and halt any further demolitions.
“It is not too late to make things right. The GRS government must take full responsibility for this inhumane act against our native villagers,” he said.
Siambun said the scenes captured in the videos should never happen in a civil society, regardless of legal ownership.
“This should not and cannot happen no matter what the legal justification is,” he said. “Stop hiding behind slogans. The people of Kg Jimpangah deserve better. The people of Sabah deserve better.”
As of now, there has been no public statement from the state authorities or from Beaufort’s elected representative regarding the eviction.
The incident has renewed scrutiny of long-standing tensions between traditional land occupation and formal land ownership laws in Sabah, where similar cases have been reported in recent years.
It is understood the eviction on Wednesday has been halted with the land owners said to have given the affected villagers until May 25 to move out. – May 21, 2025
