Veteran journalist and author James Ritchie with 35 book titles to his credit has kept himself abreast with political events in Sarawak. Excerpts from his Taib – 50 Years book tell of the present TYT’s efforts to transform Sarawak from a backwater state to what it is today during his 50 – year active political career.
REBUILDING SARAWAK
As the new Chief Minister, Taib set himself the target of rebuilding a Sarawak which had been moulded by his uncle Abdul Rahman Yakub, who had dominated politics in the state for 10 years.
When Taib took over, he praised Rahman for bringing tremendous development to the state.
Describing him as a “living legend”, Taib said that his uncle had laid a strong foundation for Sarawak’s development. Despite the kind words, all was not well. Taib was not fully assured that he would get the co-operation from Rahman.
It was not going to be easy because their styles were different. Rahman had also set very high standards which Taib had to live up to. It was going to be difficult to emulate his illustrious forebear.
Taib had been away in Kuala Lumpur and he had to re-familiarise himself with the local needs and issues.
One of the key issues he had to tackle was the State-Federal relations. Since 1963, Sarawak had always complained that the Federal authorities did not understand the State’s peculiarities and sensitivities. Even under Rahman’s leadership, the situation was no better.
To bring the two regions closer, Taib embarked on a policy of inviting Federal officers to come to Sarawak, not just to the comforts of Kuching but to the remote kampungs and longhouses.
There, the officers would be able see for themselves the situation and appreciate why Sarawak’s development demands were different from those of the peninsula.
Taib used his Kuala Lumpur connections to strengthen ties between the two regions. He already had an ally in Tun Hussein Onn whom he had served under. Now he was confident that the new Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad would also give his support.
“Dr Mahathir is quite well-known for doing as much for Sarawak as Tun Hussein and the two Prime Ministers before that. In fact, my feeling when I was in Kuala Lumpur was that the sentimentality there is a bit more warm towards Sarawak because we are the younger child. A bit more love,” he said. (NST, August 31, 1981)
Another close friend and colleague who lent his support was the deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Musa Hitam, who toured the state to get a feel of the mood on the ground. At a meet-the-people session in the coastal village of Kabong, Musa, who had been accompanied by Taib, said the Chief Minister had the interest of Sarawak at heart.
“Even as a Federal minister, Datuk Patinggi Taib never ceased to stress to me not to forget Sarawak.
“Sarawak’s heart is in Malaysia and all she asks is for the assistance she needs for her development and the improvement of the people’s lot,” said Musa. (NST, September 25, 1981)
Taib had to reintroduce himself to the people of Sarawak. So he started travelling all over the state in the first few months of his chief ministership, re-acquainting himself with the problems faced in developing the vast hinterland.
Sarawak, being an agricultural state, Taib realised that he had to look at a strategy to help the farming community which was scattered all over in isolated rural areas. He had to restructure the colonial-styled agriculture department to enable the government to proceed with a new pattern of development. Taib set aside 405,000ha for this purpose.
The first challenge was to overcome the state’s demographic structure of small villages and longhouse communities scattered all over an area just about 10,360sq km smaller than peninsular Malaysia.
Sarawak did not even have a trunk road from Kuching to Miri – the missing parts being links around the Bintulu area. Northern Sarawak, especially the Fifth Division (now called Limbang Division), was far away from the centre of administration and almost forgotten.
EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
In the 1960s, the major crops had been padi, rubber, pepper, coconut and sago. Padi (wet and dry) in particular, was important as 60 percent of the population was rural and mainly subsistence farmers. Subsequently, the government had introduced padi schemes and improved the rubber smallholder industry with the introduction of high yielding clones from the RRI and the department of agriculture.
The government’s pepper subsidy scheme also boosted the industry (the state produces a quarter of the world’s pepper) while coconut was still an important coastal crop.
Sago – important to the people of Oya, Dalat, Mukah, Beladin and Pusa – had also been given top priority as it was the fifth most important crop in the state.
In 1989, Sarawak produced an estimated 85,000 tonnes of sago flour, exporting about 30,000 tonnes worth RM13.8 million. Sago starch is used extensively in the food industry.
Speaking at the 4th International Sago Symposium in Kuching on August 6, 1990, Taib told 113 experts from eight countries that Sarawak should join hands with Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to develop the sago industry in the region.
Following weak demand for the traditional crops such as rubber and pepper in the 1970s, oil palm and cocoa slowly began to emerge as the new money-spinners.
Thanks to the Agriculture Diversification Programme of the 1960s, these two crops were identified as crops which could take Sarawak’s economy to a higher level.
However, by the 1970s, there was a need for diversification.
Taib believed that diversification was difficult because of the problem of extension services and the lack of understanding of its principles. “Our choice of crops is quite limited – rubber and oil palm – because of the emphasis in our agricultural policy.
“Diversification is difficult in the sense that extension work would be highly overstretched. And with the level of discipline in the agricultural sector here, it is difficult to even bring in oil palm.” (NST, August 31, 1981).
Oil palm was first experimented with between 1969 and 1974 when Sarawak Oil Palms (SOP) tried to develop 4,627 hectares of land in Miri. Even after SLDB and SALCRA took over the project, the industry was not successfully introduced.
Thirteen years later, in 1987, Taib launched the State’s first jointventure private oil palm estate in Suai, about 80km from Bintulu. The 24,000-acre estate was part of a programme to develop 500,000 acres of “idle land” in the state.
“The dream of developing idle land in the state for the rural population is finally materialising,” he said during his 6th anniversary as Chief Minister, in Bintulu on March 26, 1987.
Taib said he had first suggested that oil palm be grown in Sarawak on a large-scale as early as 1972 when he was Federal Primary Industries Minister. But his suggestion was shot down by the State leadership.
DEVELOPING NATIVE CUSTOMARY LAND
Long before returning to Sarawak as Chief Minister, Taib had known that the only way to ensure Sarawak could maximise its potential was to exploit the people’s greatest asset: land. Another strategy was to replace the outdated forms of agriculture through new reforms. But this was not going to be easy.
The Ibans stayed mainly in longhouse dwellings – some with as many as 70 families but mostly small communities of between 12 and 15 families or under 100 people – scattered throughout the state. Led by a “tuai rumah” (headman) the Iban were mainly shifting cultivators.
To overcome this problem, Taib said that Sarawak should emulate the peninsula which had embarked on land development projects such as the Federal Land and Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (FELCRA) and the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA).
Having experienced what they had done for rural peninsular Malaysia, Taib was convinced that these schemes could help Sarawakians adapt to modern agriculture.
(To be continued)
