The biggest potential of Sarawak is its source of renewable energy to generate electricity that can be used to develop areas from Sabah to Sarawak.
It is a huge potential but cannot be developed all at one time not because of money, which can be sourced from elsewhere, but manpower as the population is not big to provide sufficient manpower to carry out the development with the logical consequence of size that can be achieved.
The city of Kuching, apart from being the Administrative centre of the State, will increasingly become commercial and industrial centre while Bintulu and Miri, as days go by, will strengthen their positions as industrial centres.
However, the industrial development in central region is slowing down a bit but not to the extent of lowering the income level of the people.
With three areas being developed, they should ensure a more modern development of Kuching as an outlet of Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions, which also provide a channel for Kalimantan.
The Tanjung Manis port will function as the main port for the future development of the central region from Betong to Sarikei, Kapit and Mukah. Miri and Bintulu will become an economic zone, which will have more modern forms of economy emerging.
As the population of Sarawak is still small, it will not be big problems for the people to look for jobs; actually there will more jobs than those that can be taken by the local people.
For this reason, the people may see the flow of young East Malaysians to Semenanjung and flow of people from Semenanjung to Sarawak.
The Yang di Pertua Negeri, Tun Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud during a lecture under the series “Syarahan Negarawan” organized by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in Kuala Lumpur said on this matter ‘I am stating the fact and not making political statement because I can see that Sarawak will not close the manpower, which it needs to assist with its development.
The beginning of integration of Malaysia will come from that.
He believes the future of Sarawak in Malaysia is guaranteed and the future to diversify the forms of employment in Malaysia is obvious for all to see.
Such efforts should be able to bring closer together the co-operation between Semenanjung Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.
The people will be able to see or witness the increase bit by bit of the participation of Bumiputras in all levels of employment opportunities.
Tun Abdul Taib said Bumiputras have no other choices apart from using the labor contents or workers that have become available in the state. They have better qualities than workers who may come from neighboring areas.
He believes Sarawak may have the potential work surplus of that will require reorganization of labor demands that the state may consider opening up bit by bit of opportunities to outsiders depending on the policy or politics from time to time.
Sarawak will work closely with the Federal government on this.
Tun Abdul Taib said the question of co-operation between the Federal and the State government should never be made an issue. As far as he could see from his own experience, the co-operation between the Federal Government and the State government has always been good.
He said the relationship between the State and Federal Government has never encountered major problems to the extent of triggering confrontation or enforcing policies to discriminate one state against the other state.
For this reason, depending on the wisdom of the people in pursuing politics, the integration of Malaysia will be moving forward based on the capability of acceptance by the people and not based on openness to such an extent that non Malaysians can take advantage of it.
He said the interference by outsiders can destroy the success that has been achieved.
Obviously, the relationship between local workers, who take advantage of the growth of employment opportunities, with others from outside could be adversely affected because of such interferences.
Undeniably, Sarawak and Sabah have been able to get a lot of benefits as states in Malaysia though only half a century as members of a big nation.
When Peninsular Malaysia becomes more successful in industrialization, the movement to Sarawak and Sabah will certainly provide new opportunities that will create new forms of ventures that can contribute to the greater prosperity of the nation as a whole.
It is imaginable how Sarawak would make efforts in seeking co-operation with the surrounding nations whether in Asia or those further away. The State, which was still short of qualified manpower and generally still backward would certainly be facing a lot of problems and its development could not be achieved during a short period.
However, it must be acknowledged that the people of Sarawak and Sabah welcomed the formation of Malaysia wholeheartedly and they all wanted progress and prosperity together with the people in Peninsular Malaysia.
The people must also all realized Sarawak, as a state in Malaysia, could get more benefits than just pursuing a struggle as a state on its own.
For this reason, the decision of the people of Sarawak and the people of Sabah as contained in Cobbold Commission Report, showed that they had decided to become part of a big new Federation of Malaysia. I have been privileged to see that the development of Sarawak, without stability and assistance from the Malaysian economy, may not be as successful as what has been achieved now.
Now industrial development is being concentrated in Peninsular Malaysia which has a big population. This also attracts many people from Sarawak to migrate to Peninsular Malaysia to look for jobs.
Personally, Tun Abdul Taib is not worried about this outward movement because he knows new potentials are coming up in places like Bintulu and in places in the hinterlands of Sarawak.
He believes there will the migration of industries to Sarawak to start their pants or factories in the next 10 years if the State can develop hydro dams to generate electricity, which will become assets to the state. The potential to develop Sarawak will be quite limited if it is being with limited capability and resources of the state.
For example, the people can see the important roles being played by the people from outside in helping Bintulu to develop bigger projects from what it has been doing. For this reason, the decision of the people of Sarawak to become part of a bigger Nation Malaysia was actually a decision to bring about greater impact on the people and the State.
In this regards, the people must all realize that even though in the process of development, there are times when Peninsular Malaysia gets more benefits from the presence of Sarawak and Sabah in Malaysia, this does not represent a loss or a permanent feature of loss at the expense of Sarawak and Sabah.
Tun Abdul Taib observed though the State does not have many people and yet those, who have good qualification or other capabilities, still migrate to Semenanjung to look for jobs.
For example, the Ibans, who do not have the history of moving out in large numbers outside Sarawak, are now residing in Johore or going even further away than Johore.
He does not consider this as a permanent trend at the expense of Sarawak, which, actually, has yet to develop other potential other than land development.
Sarawak, before becoming part of Malaysia, had already planned a lot of development programs but all of them were not realistic in order to bring about meaningful and sustainable development for the people and the State.
He recalled his discussion with the Chief Minister before him about the development in Sarawak.
Then he had a view that it was not right to jump from the stage of development then straight to industrialization without making the necessary preparations. It must take into consideration that the wealth of Sarawak is more for short – term development unlike land development.
Tun Abdul Taib said Sarawak has more than six (6) hectares of land that can be developed to earn more revenues than other sectors of the economy that can be ventured into in one generation.
However, efforts to develop the land must be based on the model of estate management that has been proven to be successful in Peninsular Malaysia to earn more revenue for the State faster than the old model.
He said efforts to develop the timber industry did not only earn foreign exchange but they could also provide opportunities to people who had good initiatives in carrying out timber operations to move to other sectors of economy, which require capital, without necessarily leaving the timber operations.
Tun Abdul Taib observed a number of former timber operators are doing businesses outside the timber industry, which they pioneered before. Besides, a number of people from Sarawak, who have gone to Singapore, are coming back to carry out diverse forms of economic activities that can help to sustain the growth of the economy.
He believes Sarawak will not be able to achieve much progress if it maintains the original model of development to give employment opportunities to the people as in the beginning.
Hence the State must develop estates using the new techniques, which have been pioneered by RRI and other bodies related to RRI, so that more estates can be developed using less manpower than those in Semenanjung.
He said this must be a new trend for the whole country, which still depends on the export of palm oil and other agricultural products while it ventures into new industries. Actually, the people are making preparation by pursuing courses, which will be required by the state in the next level of development.
Tun Abdul Taib said the State has been able to show a good success with its development since Independence through the formation the formation of Malaysia. For example, the current rate of poverty has gone below 2%, which is a good indicator of the economic success of the State.
However, the remain rate of poverty cannot be eradicated fast because of the social condition where the people prefer to keep their traditional way of life of staying in longhouses; they are very reluctant to change it.
They like to go to towns but will go back to their longhouses where they find more stability, get steadier income with more and more business and employment opportunities being created in their areas through the process of development.
Besides, the problems of poverty even in rural areas are not obvious. Generally, the people, with the rate of poverty less than 2%, enjoy more comfort in their livelihood.
The fact that the rate cannot be eradicated instantaneously is not related to the economy but the mentality of the people that cannot be changed overnight to adopt the new trend of development; this is the overall picture.
Tun Abdul Taib said the development of NCR lands is being reorganized through LCDA, which arranges partnership between the land owners and the private sector to develop estates where the land owners own about 30% of the ventures and the private sector, 70%.
The LCDA acts as the supervisor of all the joint venture projects.
For this reason, land development remains as an activity that can open up more areas in the State, which necessitates the needs to develop the infrastructure to open up areas like Ulu Belaga, Ulu Kapit and Ulu Baram in order to bring them into the overall economy of Sarawak.
Tun Abdul Taib believes the structure of the economy of Sarawak will change in a steadier and more systematic manner the State cannot import too many foreign workers instantaneously to avoid creating political problem that can spoil the attractiveness of Sarawak as an investment destination.
It has to be carried out at a steady pace in order to bring about sufficient progress and prosperity for the people and the state.
He said the per capita income of Sarawak when he became the Chief Minister on 26 March 1981 was RM4,000.
This has risen to RM101000. The development and progress has given a good progress for the State. Of course, the progress cannot be stopped there in order to develop more sophisticated industries especially in Bintulu.
The new opportunities that will come up will depend on the spin- off of development, which is being planned as commercial activities by people from the first generation of leadership of the society.
For this reason, Sarawak in the next one generationwill not have problems in the economy in finding new ways to get more new income.
The most likely problems will be to sustain the success so that the people of Sarawak, who have additional qualifications from those that they acquiring now, can be divided into two groups with one group pursing opportunities available in the whole country while those in other groups will become pioneers of industries namely small and medium scale industries in Sarawak.
He believes efforts to promote good cooperation with neighbors in developing this region to become a prosperous and successful region when ASEAN reaches a higher level of success in future. Undoubtedly, small nations may experience a bit of problem in taking steps in development to accelerate progress.
However, they can also achieve a good progress through a good relationship like in ASEAN.
