Jabu: What have you done for Ibans lately?
Ang Ngan TohPublished: Jul 4, 2011 8:15 AM | Updated: Jul 4, 2011 8:22 AM
COMMENT The time is long overdue for Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu to admit that he has failed.
COMMENT The time is long overdue for Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu to admit that he has failed.
There is no excuse for his failure any more. He has been a member of the state cabinet since 1974, much of it as a deputy chief minister.
He is also the state rural development minister, whose sole responsibility is to help and improve the livelihood of the rural population, and was recently given back the portfolio of the Modernisation of Agriculture Ministry.
What has he done as a member of the state cabinet, holding the portfolios that are very much related to the improvement and well-being of the rural population?
The Iban, according to statistics he disclosed at the recent state assembly sitting, are the poorest community in Sarawak.
Out of 27,902 hard-core poor families registered with the Family, Women and Community Development Ministry’s sistem e-kasih in the state, 13,349 or 48.8 percent are Iban.
There are 5,601 or 20 percent hard-core poor Malay families, Orang Ulu (2,925 or 10.5 %), Bidayuh (2,757 or 9.8 %), Melanau (1,974 or 7.1 %), Chinese (674 or 2.4 %) and others (622 or 1.4%).
Again, the Ibans make up the highest number of poor families in Sarawak.
Out of 23,235 poor families in Sarawak, the Ibans make up 11,572 of them.
There are 5,534 poor Malay families, Melanau (1,868), Bidayuh (1,668), Orang Ulu (1,393), Chinese (840) and others (360).
The poverty rate among the Iban community was 12.5 per cent in 2004, according to the United Nations Development Programme. It was the highest among the various races in Sarawak.
The hard-core poor families are those whose monthly income is less than RM520 while the poor families are those earning RM830 a month.
Jabu (right) was rather reluctant to give the statistics if not for the insistence of the Sarawak DAP state assemblyperson for Pending, Violet Yong.
He claimed that the government was not scared of disclosing the statistics.
After disclosing the statistics, he made a scathing attack on the DAP and its leaders. DAP secretary-general and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was not spared, either.
Why Jabu is so much against Lim is mind-boggling.
There is completely and totally no basis for him to accuse the DAP of oppressing and suppressing the Ibans.
It was unbecoming of him to verbally attack the DAP for the plight of the rural poor.
He claimed that the rural people, especially the Ibans, became poor after a small group of people, whom he claimed were DAP supporters, protested at the launch of a native customary rights (NCR) land development project for an oil palm plantation in Kanowit in 1996.
Despite the protest, the development of the NCR land still went ahead.
The opening of the NCR land, however, has not prospered the owners.
In fact, the land owners had threatened to go to court when a plantation company failed to distribute dividends to them because it claimed that it had not made any profit all these years.
This was hardly the kind of development that could elevate the living standard of the land owners.
Most of the hardcore poor families among the Ibans are found in the BN-controlled areas, like Julau, Kapit, Sarikei as well as Jabu’s Betong.
Why would a protest by a small group of people in Kanowit have devastating consequences to the rest of Sarawak?
It does not make sense for Jabu to repeatedly put the blame on the DAP and its leaders, including Guan Eng, for the high number of poor Iban families in Sarawak.
For one, the DAP has little influence in the rural areas, especially among the Iban, Malay and Bidayuh communities.
In fact, the BN continues to cling to power in Sarawak because of the support from these three communities.
The DAP’s influence has always been in the towns and semi-urban areas of Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri.
In the recent state election, the DAP won all its 12 seats from urban and semi-urban areas.
It performed badly in Bukit Kota in Limbang, the only rural seat it was contesting.
Trying to deflect his failure?
Is Jabu trying to deflect his failure to help and improve the livelihood of the rural population by putting the blame on the DAP?
The answer is, indeed, yes.
The BN’s NCR land development has also not helped the landowners by way of dividends and employment.
Most of the jobs on the NCR land development are done by Indonesian labourers who are paid very low wages.
As a result, many of the Iban NCR land owners work in Johore and the Klang Valley.
There are about 40,000 to 50,000 Ibans in Johore, and about 20,000 to 30,000 in the Klang Valley.
The state government and Jabu ought to explain why there are more Ibans than other races from Sarawak working in peninsular Malaysia.
Is it because of lack of job opportunities in their home state or lack of a systematic approach to improving their well-being?
Does Jabu have the answers to these questions?
He cannot go on citing excuses about tackling the poverty level among the rural population.
The present policies and programmes, which have been in place for the last 30 or 40 years, should be reviewed and discarded if they are no longer applicable and practical.
Land Development Minister James Masing has come up with a new management model for the development of NCR land.
Land owners have no say
This new model will replace the much hated new NCR land development concept in which the NCR land owners literally have no say on how their lands are being developed under a joint-venture company with the private sector.
Instead, the state government-owned Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA) acts and represents the land owners.
Far worse is that the land owners do not have access to the JV company’s accounts.
Jabu should also stop promoting the planting of kapayang (illipeanut) and asking the rural people to breed ikan empurau.
Kapayang takes at least 10 years to mature before it bears fruits and there is no market for it.
Ikan empurau, though it fetches good prices, is difficult to breed. It is not like any ordinary freshwater fish.
The agriculture station in Tarat, near Serian, has yet to mass produce ikan empurau fry despite having doing some experiments for a long time.
If Jabu does not have any idea how to eradicate the poverty problems of the rural people, it is time for him to step down.
He has been warming his ministerial seat for far too long. His prolonged stay is bad for the rural community.
There is no excuse for his failure any more. He has been a member of the state cabinet since 1974, much of it as a deputy chief minister.
He is also the state rural development minister, whose sole responsibility is to help and improve the livelihood of the rural population, and was recently given back the portfolio of the Modernisation of Agriculture Ministry.
What has he done as a member of the state cabinet, holding the portfolios that are very much related to the improvement and well-being of the rural population?The Iban, according to statistics he disclosed at the recent state assembly sitting, are the poorest community in Sarawak.
Out of 27,902 hard-core poor families registered with the Family, Women and Community Development Ministry’s sistem e-kasih in the state, 13,349 or 48.8 percent are Iban.
There are 5,601 or 20 percent hard-core poor Malay families, Orang Ulu (2,925 or 10.5 %), Bidayuh (2,757 or 9.8 %), Melanau (1,974 or 7.1 %), Chinese (674 or 2.4 %) and others (622 or 1.4%).
Again, the Ibans make up the highest number of poor families in Sarawak.
Out of 23,235 poor families in Sarawak, the Ibans make up 11,572 of them.
There are 5,534 poor Malay families, Melanau (1,868), Bidayuh (1,668), Orang Ulu (1,393), Chinese (840) and others (360).
The poverty rate among the Iban community was 12.5 per cent in 2004, according to the United Nations Development Programme. It was the highest among the various races in Sarawak.
The hard-core poor families are those whose monthly income is less than RM520 while the poor families are those earning RM830 a month.Jabu (right) was rather reluctant to give the statistics if not for the insistence of the Sarawak DAP state assemblyperson for Pending, Violet Yong.
He claimed that the government was not scared of disclosing the statistics.
After disclosing the statistics, he made a scathing attack on the DAP and its leaders. DAP secretary-general and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was not spared, either.
Why Jabu is so much against Lim is mind-boggling.
There is completely and totally no basis for him to accuse the DAP of oppressing and suppressing the Ibans.
It was unbecoming of him to verbally attack the DAP for the plight of the rural poor.
He claimed that the rural people, especially the Ibans, became poor after a small group of people, whom he claimed were DAP supporters, protested at the launch of a native customary rights (NCR) land development project for an oil palm plantation in Kanowit in 1996.Despite the protest, the development of the NCR land still went ahead.
The opening of the NCR land, however, has not prospered the owners.
In fact, the land owners had threatened to go to court when a plantation company failed to distribute dividends to them because it claimed that it had not made any profit all these years.
This was hardly the kind of development that could elevate the living standard of the land owners.
Most of the hardcore poor families among the Ibans are found in the BN-controlled areas, like Julau, Kapit, Sarikei as well as Jabu’s Betong.Why would a protest by a small group of people in Kanowit have devastating consequences to the rest of Sarawak?
It does not make sense for Jabu to repeatedly put the blame on the DAP and its leaders, including Guan Eng, for the high number of poor Iban families in Sarawak.
For one, the DAP has little influence in the rural areas, especially among the Iban, Malay and Bidayuh communities.
In fact, the BN continues to cling to power in Sarawak because of the support from these three communities.
The DAP’s influence has always been in the towns and semi-urban areas of Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri.
In the recent state election, the DAP won all its 12 seats from urban and semi-urban areas.
It performed badly in Bukit Kota in Limbang, the only rural seat it was contesting.
Trying to deflect his failure?
Is Jabu trying to deflect his failure to help and improve the livelihood of the rural population by putting the blame on the DAP?
The answer is, indeed, yes.
The BN’s NCR land development has also not helped the landowners by way of dividends and employment.
Most of the jobs on the NCR land development are done by Indonesian labourers who are paid very low wages.
As a result, many of the Iban NCR land owners work in Johore and the Klang Valley.There are about 40,000 to 50,000 Ibans in Johore, and about 20,000 to 30,000 in the Klang Valley.
The state government and Jabu ought to explain why there are more Ibans than other races from Sarawak working in peninsular Malaysia.
Is it because of lack of job opportunities in their home state or lack of a systematic approach to improving their well-being?
Does Jabu have the answers to these questions?
He cannot go on citing excuses about tackling the poverty level among the rural population.
The present policies and programmes, which have been in place for the last 30 or 40 years, should be reviewed and discarded if they are no longer applicable and practical.
Land Development Minister James Masing has come up with a new management model for the development of NCR land.
Land owners have no say
This new model will replace the much hated new NCR land development concept in which the NCR land owners literally have no say on how their lands are being developed under a joint-venture company with the private sector.
Instead, the state government-owned Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA) acts and represents the land owners.
Far worse is that the land owners do not have access to the JV company’s accounts.Jabu should also stop promoting the planting of kapayang (illipeanut) and asking the rural people to breed ikan empurau.
Kapayang takes at least 10 years to mature before it bears fruits and there is no market for it.
Ikan empurau, though it fetches good prices, is difficult to breed. It is not like any ordinary freshwater fish.
The agriculture station in Tarat, near Serian, has yet to mass produce ikan empurau fry despite having doing some experiments for a long time.
If Jabu does not have any idea how to eradicate the poverty problems of the rural people, it is time for him to step down.
He has been warming his ministerial seat for far too long. His prolonged stay is bad for the rural community.
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