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Extracted
from Malaysiakini
Name the Dayaks given
timber concessions, Taib told
Mar 5,
“It's better to name them and state how many, rather than
give the impression that hundreds have been helped,” he said, when contacted
today.
“Is it one, two or 10? If he gave to 20 Dayaks, then name
them one by one in all fairness to the rest (who have received nothing). And
why is he against them now?”
Patau, a former state assistant minister who fell out of
favour with Taib and was sacked from his post in 1995, said he knew for a fact
that a Melanau politician was given at least eight timber concessions.
On Wednesday, while
opening a new Proton dealer showroom in Kuching, Taib openly spoke out against
a group of Dayak politicians and businessmen (whom he did not name but
described as a pessimistic lot) who, according to him, had been given huge
timber concessions and made hundreds of millions but were now painting a gloomy
outlook for the Dayak community.
Patau said he did not know why Taib was so agitated and
would not want also to venture a guess. “Perhaps he is feeling guilty.”
“(But) as chief minister he has all the power to help the
Dayaks with or without such people as (senior state ministers) Alfred Jabu, Dr
James Masing and William Mawan.'
“But if you can't even please the Malays, something is
definitely wrong!” the Star chief commented, alluding to unhappiness without
certain quarters of the Malay community following the treatment given to a senior
Malay minister Abang Johari Tun Openg, the state housing minister, who,
according to observers, has remained obscured within the party, inspite of
holding the No 2 post in Taib's PBB.
Linggi among the target
Although he did not mention any name, the chief minister is
believed to be referring to a group of Dayak politicians-businessmen headed by
Leonard Linggi Jugah, the former PBB and state Barisan Nasional
secretary-general and now president of the Dayak Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (DCCI),which is actively trying to assist
Dayak businessmen take greater advantage of opportunities in commerce and
industry and lobby for more government contracts.
Linggi, a highly-successful Iban businessman who has made
his money from timber, shipping, banking, oil palm plantation, insurance and
real estate development businesses, is chairperson of Rajang Wood Sdn Bhd, a
company given a 25-year forest concession covering an area known as Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Unit 3 of more than 600,000 acres by Taib's
predecessor and political nemesis and uncle Tun Abdul Rahman Yakub in the
1970s. The licence expired last year and was not renewed.
Taib is understood to have been particularly irked by the
public disclosure of research findings by the Prime Minister's Department
Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and some Dayak academics pointing to the
comparatively low level of economic performance of the Dayaks in commerce and
industry and their socio-economic status.
This is believed to have embarrassed him and his Dayak
colleagues who have already disputed the claim that the Dayaks are being
neglected and victimised.
Patau said “if he (Taib) disagrees with the statistics then
there should be a new socio-economic status study to disprove or prove all this
instead of lashing out at some Dayaks, including an Iban professor.'
Patau attended the
recent Bumiputera Minorities Economic Congress, organised jointly by the DCCCI
and Kadazandusun Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCCI) and officiated by
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Kuala Lumpur last month.
He said the Chief Minister's reaction was an obvious
acknowledgement that the present Iban ministers - Alfred Jabu, Dr James Masing
and William Mawan - had failed to deliver to the Dayak community otherwise
there would have been no necessity to come to their defence.
Salcra schemes fail?
On the setting up of a land bank using native customary
land (NCL), he asked: “Have they done a socio-economic impact study? What is
its effect? Has it provided jobs and the expected income? How much dividends
and bonus have been paid out?'
“Land bank for how long and for whom? Who gets the money?'
“What went wrong with
oil palm schemes under the
Under the Salcra scheme, NCL owners are encouraged to
develop the land through joint ventures with non natives and hold a 30 per cent
equity.
But Patau claimed that the scheme had not actually provided
the employment and the cash as promised to the native owners, saying that this
had something to do more with the questionable management of the board rather
than the policy of government.
He claimed there was exploitation of many NCR owners'
ignorance of their rights to their land and by the time they realised the value
of what they had lost it would be too late to do anything.