Indisputably, the development of estates on NCR land, with the help of the private sector, has been able to help the owners to get steady incomes from their land. It has become an efficient way to utilize fully the NCR land for the benefits of owners. The application of the modern methods of farming enables all the land to be developed and not leaving, for example, two out of eight acres to be left idle to the loss of the owner. It is a waste if the large tracts of NCR lands that have been accumulated since the time of our parents or great grandparents through the process of traditional farming for hundreds of years, are left to remain idle and incapable of giving income to the owners. Hence some Natives remain poor until today. If some of the lands can be developed with modern methods of agriculture all Natives should be able to pass the poverty line.
The State government had to focus on the development of infrastructure to encourage the people to develop their lands. Then they were still using the traditional way. An overwhelming majority of them were smallholders, each of them having the capability to open up two or three acres of land here and there. Then the State government realized that if the situation was allowed to persist, the young people might not stay in rural areas. Even the farmers would abandon efforts to till lands to irk for a living.
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| Sarawak Plantation |
The decline in the growth of the agricultural sector had already started in the late 70s. It clearly indicated that the issue of land and agriculture could not be overcome unless a new formula could be introduced to do so. The first problem was inadequate infrastructure and second, the people were ignorant of the modern methods of agriculture. Then there were very few individuals, if not nobody could inject modern methods of farming into the agricultural sector. There were some Chinese farmers but there were too few of them doing so.
Then there were large tracts of NCR being left idle. Some people, through the process of shifting cultivation, each could own about 20 acres but ¾ of the total acreage were left idle. There are now about one million hectares of Native Customary Rights land but ¾ of them are not planted with anything. Obviously, the Natives are very rich with lands but poor in their incomes. Such situation should not be allowed to persist in the State.
Actually, people, who make issues of efforts to develop NCR lands are trying to confuse the land owners to fight among them or fight against the government. In other words, they instigate the land owners to have disputes among them mainly over boundaries and not to tackle the problems of how to develop the land for the people. Ultimately, they will drag owners of NCR land 20 years behind.
Indisputably, the development of estates on NCR land, with the help of the private sector, has been able to help the owners to get steady income from their land. In other words, the development of Native estates has become an efficient way to utilize fully the NCR land for the benefits of the owners. The application of the modern methods of farming enables all the land to be developed and not leaving, for example, two out of eight acres to be left idle to the loss of the owner.
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| Two years old Oil Palm grows well in one of the NCR land belongs to small holder |
Our parents or great grandparents, through the process of traditional farming for hundreds of years have been able to accumulate large tracts of NCR lands. But most of them are left to remain idle and incapable of earning incomes for the owners. As a consequence, some Natives remain poor until today. If some of the lands could be developed with modern methods of agriculture all Natives should be able to pass the poverty line.
For this reason, the State government has to make conscientious efforts to develop Native estates to fully utilize NCR land in order to help the owners to improve their livelihood. The State has been able to develop one million hectares of land for estates throughout the State with the primary objective to create business and employment opportunities for the people to improve their livelihood. Now, if we fly we can see more estates than jungles over the land surface of the State. This means the land can earn better revenue than if they remain undeveloped.
The RT. Hon. the Prime Minister, Dato Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Abdul Razak after being informed that the State did not have fund to make perimeter survey of Native Customary Right lands has been kind enough to allocate RM20 million for the purpose. He agrees to reimburse all claims relating to the perimeter survey of all NCR lands based on the aerial photography that has already been made on the land.
Once they are surveyed and demarcated as NCR land, nobody, not even the government can touch them. This fact must be made known to the people through all party channels. The Government, both at the Federal and State levels, recognizes all Native lands within the boundary of what is being surveyed as Native Rights. The State government leaves it to the Natives to sort out their shares in the parcels of land. The government on its part recognises their rights on the land; the rights are secured now and in the future.
Regrettably, the opposition and foreign NGOs, have been making baseless allegation that the government has the intention to take away Native land. They are ignorant of the fact if people do not agree with the decision of the government to acquire their land or the quantum of compensation of their land can refer the matter to court. If the court rules the status of the land as NCR land, the Government normally abides by the decision. The government respects the court decision; there have never been cases when the government challenges decisions of the court on land matters.
There was one case, about 20 years ago when the State Government upon receiving a complaint from the people of Rh. Chang in Niah that their land had been taken by the government and given to another party decided to investigate it thoroughly. The Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud personally decided to visit Land and Survey office in Miri and directed the officers to search for any evidence that the land had been given to the people of Rh. Chang. A copy of the authorization letter could be found in one of the office files.
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| A Penan longhouse at Batu Bungan |
If the Government, had the intention to take away the land, he could instruct the officers to tear the letter of authority and put it in the waste paper basket. The people in Rumah Chang had already known that they could not produce the letter. When he saw a copy of the letter, he directed the Land and Survey department to give the land back to Rh. Chang.
It was a problem for the government because the land had already been given to another party who had already spent money planting oil palm on it. The government had to compensate the party for the return of the land. Besides, the State Government had to give another piece of land to the party. Tuai Rumah Chang could got their land back because the Government did not tear or hide the evidence of possession of the land by them. This was the stand of the government, it stands by what is right, not by soothe of propaganda.
But the opposition is alive to issues that float like clouds and do not touch the land. Advisably, the people, whose lands have allegedly been taken by the government, should go to court to seek redress. They should not make issues out of their cases because there are more lands being developed for Natives than the isolated cases of land being acquired by the government for development. Regrettably, the opposition only knows how to fan the people’s feeling by playing on isolated cases of land disputes between some individuals with the government.
If the opposition really wants to help people in rural areas, it should not be involved in the campaign to confuse them. They should take all these pieces one by one to the court and let the court to decide who actually own the land. That is the crux of the issue that does not even represent 2% or 3%. The cases should not be used to destroy the 97% of those that have benefitted or in the process of benefitting Bumiputras.
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| Handicraft |
The opposition has been keeping alive the issue of the renewal of land. It has chosen to ignore the fact that Sarawak imposes the cheapest renewal premium in the whole of Malaysia including Selangor and Penang; Pinang charged much higher for the renewal of land than Sarawak; so does Selangor. The opposition does not give credit that Sarawak is charging the cheapest renewal premium in the whole of Malaysia. As the State government gets more money, it decides to help people to own houses and develop their land. Revenue from land is no longer as big as it used to be in terms of proportion. Therefore, the issue of land must be put right in proper perspective and let the opposition be honest enough to do this.
Sarawak will have no way to develop beyond the timber industry if does not have the formula to develop the lands whether state, mixed zone of NCR lands. Regrettably, some Sarawakians are supporting overseas people to say that the State should not open up more land to plant palm oil any more. In the process, they managed to mislead some big planters associations in Kuala Lumpur on this issue. We must fight as we are preserving our environment more than any countries that criticize us. We are fighting back as we have been looking after the environment much more than anybody who criticize us. That should put the issue to rest.
The State has been planting palm oil in large quantity. The State has already planned for palm oil to be used to manufacture many products; even the branches can be used to produce celluloid. Actually palm oil can be used to produce bio-fuel and a lot of other things by using bio-technical processes. That means Sarawak will have more sophisticated industries based on agricultural products. The industries will require people who have knowledge and skills; there will be more opportunities for people who have gone through tertiary education and technical trainings. This is the meaning of having one extra million hectares of palm oil.
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| Near Batu Bungan, a Penan settlement |
Sarawak has reached a stage of development where it has to move away from land. Oil is going to be exhausted in 10, 20 years. Hence, Sarawak has developed a strategy to encourage the development of heavy industries something that cannot be done well in other states. But Sarawak has thought of how to use the rich natural resources. The State Government decided to dig back reports on all the studies that were carried out 30, 40 years ago on hydro electricity potentials in the State. The studies revealed that the mid region of Sarawak had the potential to produce more than 20,000 megawatts of electricity, something that is well above what the State can absorb in 100 years; besides the State has huge coal reserve.
Meanwhile, the State Government takes note of the fact that the world is going to face shortage of fuel in the next 10 years. For every barrel of petroleum that can be discovered the world is going to use two barrels. That means the supply of petroleum is going to be less and less because the new discovery is slow and the demands will be more and more. And that means the prizes of petroleum are going to come up. Even now the costs of oil will go up more and more.
Therefore, Sarawak must find ways how to supplement the energy. But initially the problem was where to raise billions and billions of ringgit to develop hydro electricity. It had to struggle with the development of Bakun hydro dam; even the Federal government found difficulties in developing the hydro dam. But due to recession oil prizes hit US100 per barrel. Then the State government realized it had to develop the hydro resources. It decided to look for money independently. Today because of what is happening in Libya, the prize of petroleum has reached over US110, something that will again tell us to find new sources of energy.
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| Informatio |
Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud has been going out all over the world to float the idea of developing the hydro resources and he has been getting good responses from manufacturers of aluminum, manganese, poly silicon and many other things; some of them are pioneers of the green energy of the world. They think Sarawak should develop all its hydro potentials.
The world market for Halal food and products is expanding all over Europe and America. The market for Halal food and products will reach I trillion or One thousand billion US dollars within two years. Malaysia has got a good credential as a Muslim country in the sense that the country can control the quality of local products. The country is known to be honest with the certification scheme that sticks to Muslim standard of cleanliness and hygiene. As Malaysia has high credibility as a Muslim country, the people should make conscientious efforts to exploit the market.
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| Hill Paddy schemes in Tebedu |
Basically, the production of Halal products is not confined to Muslims only. All over the world big companies like Nestle and many others are already adjusting their products to comply with the Halal market. In Malaysia, local businessmen do not have to be Muslimst o produce Halal products. They should think of how to get money from the Middle East, the Central Asian Republics and Muslims in Europe and America.
The Halal market is the new opportunity for Sarawakians to enrich themselves. For Sarawak, the development of energy intensive industries and Halal market is enough to carry the people through for the next 20 years. Then the income will increase by five to 6 times more in the next 20 years. The State will be able to create 1.5 million jobs under SCORE. It is something that the people should be proud of.
benuasains
*Photos Source:
http://ladangsawit.blogspot.com/
https://picasaweb.google.com/joyceha/MuluNiahCaves#
http://ladangsawit.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-i-choose-oil-palm-planting.html
http://www.sop.com.my
http://limaudong.blogspot.com
http://limaudong.blogspot.com
google.com images
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