Julau-Meradong NCR landowners reject JV scheme

 

JULAU - Members of longhouse communities together with the Jaringan Tanah Hak Adat Bangsa Asal Sarawak (TAHABAS) in the Julau and Bintangor Districts today came out with a press release rejecting the proposed Joint Venture (JV) scheme between the native customary rights (NCR) landowners with Sime Darby Plantations and the Land Custody Development Authority (LCDA) to develop oil palm plantations under a 60, 30 and 10 percent equity.

 

According to Nyumbang anak Barau, secretary of TAHABAS, he and some members of their community attended the dialogue session which followed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the 9^th July 2009.

 

After the dialogue session and signing of MoU he said, “I wish to reiterate our stand as the affected landowners against the implementation of this NCR land development policy in our areas, where LCDA and Sime Darby respectively owned 10% and 60% share in a Joint Venture Company (JVC).

 

“The remaining 30% is supposed to be owned by us; the landowners who have not agreed to this policy. We are not against NCR land developments through oil palm schemes per se, but we cannot accept this particular land development policy.”

 

In the press release Nyumbang outlined five points on why the NCR landowners disagree with the project.

 

Firstly, they are not confident that LCDA can competently and impartially protect their rights in the JVC. They see that LCDA has vested interests, and the mechanisms to be employed are not convincing enough to protect their rights.

 

Secondly, Nyumbang stated that LCDA is being given an equivalent of dictatorial power which is too strong for their liking, while their rights have been unfairly and vastly diminished.

 

The third point states that the NCR landowners do not trust LCDA, and they are against LCDA becoming their Trustee. LCDA’s records as known by them have failed to dispel the fear that they will not be receiving fair bonuses and dividends later, if any. The so-called 30% share that is offered to them may not eradicate their poverty but they may even become poorer by losing their lands forever after signing the Trust Deed. The current policy does not satisfactorily provide a guarantee to return those lands to their heirs upon the expiry of the joint venture after 60 years. This fear is genuine and not unfounded. The issue of land grabbing by the Sarawak State Government, which has consistently denied it due to obvious reasons, is reflected by over 200 cases in Sarawak’s courts involving NCR lands.

 

“With such numbers, why are we not to worry?” said Nyumbang.

 

Nyumbang went on to say that, incidentally, the people from over 60 longhouses living in Lower Julau and Upper Bintangor and those along KJD road formed an action committee in 2007 to counteract an earlier attempt to extract timber on these same lands by a company issued with a Provisional Lease by the government.

 

The fourth point states that the NCR landowners are worried that if this JVC fails to settle its debts by a certain period, they, the landowners are then forced to do so and this may warrant the use of their lands if need be. The landowners are worried that this may cause them to lose their lands.

 

On the fifth point Nyumbang pointed out that the labour rate of RM15 per day which also works out to about RM330 per month is hardly sufficient and falls well below the poverty line.

 

Nyumbang said that due to the absence of land titles, some of our idle NCR lands may not seem to offer us much profit.

 

But on the other hand he said, “We cannot deny that they do give us tangible benefits by serving as our “rural wet markets”.

 

“They are our source of unpolluted vegetables, meats and fishes in addition to giving us priceless building materials and other jungle produce.

 

Moreover by safe-keeping these lands temporarily, we can therefore hope that one day our next generation with better education and means will be able to develop them better.”

 

“Of course we loathe being financially poor such that most of us have great difficulty in turning our lands into successful undertakings,” said Nyumbang.

 

However, he said, “We seriously relish developing these lands ourselves, and we ask the government to refocus and give priority to development of NCR lands by their respective owners which the government must admit is better for us than the current big scale 60:30:10 percent JV scheme.”

 

The government has been urged to consider making financial loans available to NCR landowners by surveying individual plots of land and issuing land titles to these landowners.

 

Nyumbang said inherently, the landowners may also be able to obtain licences to e.g. build swiftlets farmhouses or doing other businesses requiring licences on such titled lands which are generally agricultural lands.

 

“I believe the state government would smile with pride and admiration seeing her natives can also be bird-nest millionaires,” said Nyumbang.

 

In tandem with issuing titles, he also suggested that the government must formulate and institute laws to both enable banks to accept NCR lands as collaterals for loans, and to effectively prevent mortgaged NCR lands ownerships from being transferred to people who are not eligible to own NCR lands even under non-performing loans circumstances.

 

He also urged the government to set a panel participated by relevant parties to study the implications of issuing land titles and also to formulate a method to regulate their usage.

 

“Do a study to find out if sales of titled NCR land are rampant and find ways to arrest that by any other means although not by not issuing titles,” he said.