Extracted From Malaysiakini

 

Sarawak Iban remain poorest community

Tony Thien

Sep 25, 04 8:23pm

 

Poverty rates vary markedly among Sarawak’s diverse communities with the Iban having the highest at 10.5 per cent, according to latest data for 2002 made available today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

 

The Iban is Sarawak’s largest race forming 30.1 per cent of Sarawak’s 2.5 million population. It is estimated that more than 60 per cent of the Iban live in several thousand longhouses scattered throughout the largely riverine state.

 

In a paper on ‘Paradox of Poverty Studies’ at a one-day seminar focusing on poverty eradication issues related to Malaysia’s bumiputra minorities in Sarawak or the non-Muslim bumiputra groups, Dr Richard Leete, UNDP regional representative said Sarawak’s poverty rates 2002 was 5.8 per cent.

 

The seminar was organised by the Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA) in response to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s call for an all-out war against poverty affecting all groups in the country, especially bumiputra minorities in Sarawak and Sabah.

 

Taking the Muslim and non-Muslim bumiputras as one, the average bumiputras’ poverty rate was 8.0 per cent.

 

Under the bumiputra sub-groups, the highest poverty rate was the highest among the Iban (10.5 per cent), followed next by other indigenous bumiputras such as Bidayuh/Kayan/Kenyah/Lun Bawang/Kelabits (6.8 per cent) and the Malays (5.2 per cent).

 

The poverty rate among the Chinese, the second largest race forming 26.7 per cent of the population, was the lowest with only 1.0 per cent.

 

Leete said in terms of progress in poverty eradication in the state from 1990 to 2002, Sarawak was behind Melaka, Pahang, Johor, Negri Sembilan, Pulau Pinang, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur but ahead of the remaining states – Sabah, Terengganu, Kedah, Kelantan, Perak and Perlis.

 

A rather alarming statistics is that 17 per cent of Sarawakians aged 6 and above in 2000 never attended school at all, and that 44 per cent of those who did only attended primary school.
This compared with the national figure of 10 per cent who never attended school.

 

Slow literacy progress

Another alarming revelation from UNDP statistics is that Sarawak’s progress in literacy from 1990 to 2000 was the slowest in the whole country, even behind neighbouring Sabah.

 

If it is of some comfort, only 10 per cent of the communities are not covered by rural water supply system in Sarawak. Kelantan fares the worst with Sabah next.

 

Leete said there has, however, been significant progress overall in improving social and economic outcomes in Sarawak “but sharp differentials persist.”

 

He added that there was a need for policies and programmes that would put equity at core and contribute to reducing inequities.

 

He called for such issues as access to social services, including environmental services such as water safety and loss of biodiversity, as well as basics on infrastructure to be addressed urgently.

 

The UNDP man qualified his observations by saying there was a need to improve on data collection to allow for what he called better identification of vulnerable groups.