Government Initiated NCR Land Development Schemes

Press Statement

on

Government Initiated NCR Land Development Schemes

It has become painfully obvious that NCR land development schemes initiated by the state government have failed, very miserablely,  to achieve their stated objectives of providing  a reasonable and sustainable income to particpants of the estates and  of providing employment to the locals.

This is particularly true with the oil palm and tea plantations developed and managed by SALCRA and LCDA.

It was reported in early November 2011 that Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu had announced that SALCRA will pay out dividend totalling RM100,888,000.00 to the 16,374 participants of SALCRA’s 18 oil palm estates through out  the state.

The payment, it was reported, will be made in 2 parts, the first of which is to be made in early 2012, presumably  in January 2012.

SALCRA’s 18 oil palm estates cover a total planted area of approximately 51,000 hectares. Out of this, 40,908 hectares are matured areas. The revenue from which this RM100,888,000.00 dividend is derived is assumed to be from these matured areas.

The FFB (fresh fruit bunches) yield of SALCRA’s estates for 10 months in 2011, ending October 2011 was reported to be 491,000 tonnes. This averages out to 12 tonnes per hectare.

The industry’s  standard (for the state of Sarawak) as reflected in MPOB’s statistics as at 30/11/2011 is 15.35 tonnes per hectare.

SALCRA’s average CPO price for 2011 thus far  is said to be RM2800.00 per tonne. The industry average is RM3269.00 per tonne.

SALCRA’s dividend payments totalling  RM100,888,000.00 gives  an average of RM2466.00 per hectare of matured estate area per year or RM206.00 per month. This is far below the state’s poverty line income of RM850.00 per month.

 In contrast, FELCRA, another GLC announced that they are very confident that they will be able to pay dividends totalling RM850,000,000.00 based on revenue generated from their oil palm estates which cover  162,321 hectares of planted area.

FELCRA’s forecasted dividend gives an average of RM5236.00 per hectare, more than double  that of SALCRA’s.

A  seldom mentioned tragic aspect of SALCRA’s plantation is that a rather substantial acreage in these estates have passed hands, from the original land owners (who were supposed to benefit from these schemes) to people of means who are not in any real need of SALCRA dividend payment.

It was alleged that the single biggest recipient of dividend form SALCRA’s Bratak and Undan estates is a prominent BN politician.

It is also reliably learned that SALCRA has a total of 800 odd employees. Of this total, about 100 are employed at their corporate HQ. The balance of 700 plus employees are spread over their 18 estates. This works out to be an average of 39 employees per estate or scheme.

It is reported that there are about 140,000 legally employed Indonesians working in the oil plantation sector in Sarawak and another  100,000 are illegal workers.

This begs the question, ‘ Shouldn’t Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu, Chairman of SALCRA and Tan Sri Dr James Masing, the minister in charge of SALCRA be made accountable to the participants for the dismal performance of SALCRA?

The oil palm schemes initiated by LCDA are no better than those of SALCRA. Getting numbers that give indication of their management performances is near impossible but judging from the court cases involving their j.v estates they are definitely on the same plane as SALCRA.

With the obvious failures of these 2  government agencies to achieve the objectives upon which they were concieved and incorporated, we in PKR called upon the state government to do the one thing that can bring real benefit to the participants of these land schemes – to very quickly issue land titles to all the plots of land in these schemes which has not been issued with land titles yet.

In particular, we called upon the state government to very quickly issue land titles to the participants of the SALCRA Jagoi Estates in Bau as there is only about 5 years left in the development agreement AND to the participants of SALCRA’s Mayang Tea Estate in Serian.

In this regard, the participants in Jagoi estates once again call upon Datuk Sri Michael Manyin, Minister  Of Infrastructure Development and Communication  who also  is a board member of SALCRA and upon Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe, MP for Mas Gading to ensure that land titles to their land be issued latest by 28th Feb  2012.

We also call upon Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu, the Minister for Modernisation Of Agriculture  who also is the Chairman of SALCRA and upon Tan Sri Dr James Masing, Minister of Land Development  (the minister  in charge of SALCRA and LCDA) to ensure  that these 2 agencies are able to achieve, in the near short term, the objectives that these agencies were incorporated upon through, among others:

1. A guaranteed minimum income,  of which the average per month should exceed the poverty line

    income of the state, with automatic yearly adjustments consistent with inflation rate.

2. To complete the issuance of land titles to all plots of land in SALCRA’s estates which has not

    been issued with a title yet.

3. To  cause and to ensure that all NCR land in all LCDA J.V estates are issued with land titles by or 

    before the end of the 5th year in the  respective development agreements, latest.

By           :  BONIFACE WILLY ANAK TUMEK

                  AJK, PKR CABANG MAS GADING

                  AJK, BIRO PILIHANRAYA,  PKR NEGERI SARAWAK.

Date        : 20th Dec 2011