BN Sarawak Con NCR landowners, 2 decades and continuing …

By Apang  @ Hueditor

I couldn’t help noticing, yet again, the latest news spinned by yet another Sarawak BN minister on the greatness of large-scale land development scheme on Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands. There was Alfred Jabu’s piece on 23 Feb 2009, entitled “Salcra participants receive land titles”  and the most recent one on 26 May 2009 Borneo Post report headlined “Govt improves policy related to oil palm schemes” . To those who care to study the details, it has been known since day 1 that the Sarawak government’s large-scale land development schemes with oil palm on Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands are fundamentally flawed.

They are flawed on a few basic points. Several reports are available in more details for viewers to judge for themselves after learning the facts.

“Land is Life: Land Rights and Oil Palm Development in Sarawak” is a report telling the affected Sarawak indigenous communities’ experiences and it can be freely accessed at  rengah website for all to read. Another publication, Tanah Pengidup Kitai (Our Land is Our Livelihood) visit website for details. Last but not least, a specific study titled “A Social Study Report on the Oil Palm Plantation in the Kanowit District of Sarawak”, relating to the area in which the 26 May Borneo Post article reported can also be downloaded at rengah website .

Konsep Baru

The pioneer Kanowit oil palm scheme was the first to be developed under the then Konsep Baru or New Concept land development. At the most basic level, this so-called new concept viewed NCR lands as unproductive, a misconception in the very first place with such sweeping perception. It exposes the blatant bias of an outdated mode of thinking that is still stuck in the outdated mind of the BN in Sarawak specifically and Malaysia in general.

But then again, when we drill further, we can be rather accurately skeptical that such developmental concept is to hide the government-corporation buddy-ship that is the hallmark of Sarawak Incorporated or Malaysia Incorporated. So in the name of lifting the socio-economic status of the Sarawak NCR landowners, who are first wrongly classified as being poor by using the outdated measurement, the scheme is to enrich corporations and of course those well-connected few for some projects here and there. That is, l guess, BN’s style of trickle-down effect, the old mode of development concept.

Let’s briefly cap the juice of this new concept and then I return to what the above Borneo Post articles are all about.

The BN’s old New Concept stipulates that a joint-venture company is to be created between various “partners” – the corporation with the capital and the technical know-how, the NCR landowners and the government. The share structure shall be 60% to the corporation, 30% to the landowners and 10% with the Sarawak Government. The whole equity structure may look fair enough to those simple-minded.

The details give a different picture. Firstly, with such setup, the government is forcing landowners to agree that they are only landowners if they joined the scheme. How else to explain that they have rights as landowners as recognized by the 30% equity in the scheme but no such rights when they opt not to join the scheme. But then these very same people, with rights recognized, have no rights to be represented in the management board of the joint-venture company. Then why the government has the 10% equity sharing when it should be just landowners and private corporation? Well, we know what their attitude towards the landowners is without any need to crack our head.

Apparently, the landowners are not qualified to be in the board and in order to not have them “disturbing” the running of the JV business; their interest is to be handled by the Sarawak Government. Well, if you can’t trust the BN government, who else can you trust? Certainly not the “lying” opposition and the “instigating” NGOs who continue to highlight the raw deals of the landowners!

My Primary One Mathematics

To cut the story short (since viewers can get more details from other reports), the landowners are to get dividends. Alfred Jabu was reported as saying since Salcra’s inception in 1986, RM295 million in dividends had been distributed to some 16,000 participants. Jabu is the current Salcra chairman.

I did my Math until HSC level but I think l only need to use my Primary One Math to decipher Jabu’s figures.

He said there were altogether 16,000 participants and the scheme had been operating since 1986, thus it had been 22 years until 2008 – let’s just count 22 years since Jabu was reported in early 2009. Let’s also assume that all 16,000 participants were involved since day 1 of Salcra – talking about solidarity here of course.

So, RM295 million divide by 16,000 equals to RM18437.50. Wow, not even enough for a new Kancil. Then l remember that my Primary One Maths teacher had said that I had not completed the equation yet. So I must divide that amount by the 22 years – RM18437.50 / 22 = RM838.10. So, each participant receives RM838.10 per year, assuming again that all landowners have equal size of lands included in the Salcra oil palm scheme. WOW!

If we were to divide that further by the 12 months in each of the 22 years, we get RM69.84 or say we are generous by rounding the figure to RM70, per month, per landowner, over the last 22 years.

Now, didn’t I read somewhere that the revised BN Government’s poverty and hardcore poverty figures would make these Bumiputra landowners closer to living under less than US$1 per day by joining this “development” scheme?

So there you have it, Alfred Jabu, your “big” RM295 million sum had been broken down, into bare figures. Shame on you, for continuing to use total figures to hide key figures!!!

Then Jabu’s assistant, Gramong Juna, threw open more figures in the 26 May report. There is now the “incentive payment” that will be made annually until the company makes profit to enable it to pay the actual dividend amount. This is an obvious recognition of the failure of past practice of waiting for some 10 years at certain schemes before landowners get first dividend payment. At RM150 per hectare per year, or RM12.50 per month per hectare, this must be world record for the cheapest government-brokered business deal for the landowners.

The assistant minister then announced that cash incentive amounting to RM70,180.50 was paid to 174 participants from 22 longhouses.

Now can anyone of you count for me how much per participant gets from this “incentive”? Of course you have to assume that each participant has equal size of lands. Sorry, no mark for getting this calculation corrects.

“Land Title Confirmation Document” – Another dirty BN trick

Then there is also the so-called “land title confirmation document”. Classic BN method of trying to pacify the angry landowners by coming up with more gimmicks. It is a gimmick, devoid of any legal or real meaning because as the Assistant Minister was reported as saying, “this is not a land permit and also not issued by the Land and Survey Department.”

So the very authority on land matters, the Land and Survey Department does not recognize it so it provides neither security nor meaning at all to the landowners. So it is back to the very fundamental question from day one of the scheme, which is, there is no land security at all!

As if the assistant minister was giving hint of problems within the schemes, it was reported that this document was, among others, “to solve the land border issue among the scheme participants.” Well great, first the scheme bulldozed trees which are used by generations of NCR landowners as land-border demarcation markers and now they make themselves as saviors of land disputes with this “land title confirmation document”.

Can PR get organised?

OK, now that we got some minute facts (while others that can be checked are like when does the company first makes profits and why it couldn’t make profits earlier and or higher etc), can the Sarawak PR get their acts together, see the bigger picture of the common target, use facts instead of mere political rhetoric and get cracking NOW, not wait until the formal election-campaign period, to share some basic facts with the rural folks as to how the landowners continue to be cheated?

Jabu in the 23 Feb 2009 news report had already challenged Pakatan Rakyat (or is it still the case that since Jabu challenged PKR specifically, so let PKR handles it?) to prove that the government were taking the people’s lands and that Salcra projects were not benefiting the landowners. Well, now that we know what Jabu’s reported “land titles” are in reality, I am sure PR don’t need Anwar to speak up on this latest gimmick from the Sarawak BN?

There are already communities who are better off by not joining the large-scale government sponsored oil palm schemes that are available for all to see. Furthermore, with the above figures, l am sure all rural voters can question the benefits of joining any official scheme.

I just have to wonder if PR have the maturity and political will to take over as the new Sarawak Government. The answer will be obvious if they continue to only talk rhetoric and bitch against one another, rather than getting organised now and start ground work immediately! If not, who can blame the voters for sticking to the tested and known rotten BN, not for want of voting BN, but as a protest for the lack of an organised alternative!

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