MOST people were very skeptical upon learning that the Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) was about to enter into a joint venture in commercial oil palm plantation with Native Customary Rights (NCR) landowners in Saratok-Saribas region in the mid-1990s.
It was found out later that those giving their views were not the landowners involved but those whose land lots were not included in the land area chosen by Salcra. Many were also the typical coffeeshop rumour-mongers, some of whom were the unfortunate landless poor.
These so-called “wisemen” nastily viewed it as a step by the government to entice native customary rights (NCR) landowners in surrendering their land rights. There were more negative and vicious views. This was when my brothers and family sought my opinion of which I had little to offer for being so naive about land matters.
“Don’t bother about the negative views. It’s good to have the idle lots developed. Some of those land lots have remained fallow for some decades, that they look like virgin jungles; so it’s about time they are cultivated,” I told my second brother Jon, now 71, a retired JKR foreman.
This resulted in three plots of our land in Burui and Kedap, in the Melupa basin being registered under Salcra’s charge. There was one initial dispute over one lot in Burui but was later settled in Jon’s favour.
By 1997, hundreds of landowners in the said area were lining up and laughing all the way to the bank, thanks to dividends of their crops (oil palm) paid by Salcra, thereby proving the skeptics wrong. My family’s three plots received a five-figure dividend – my two brothers always joked about our father’s trembling right hand holding the cheque, an amount that he had never seen or received in his entire life. He was 87 in 1997.
There were a number of interesting tales when other landowners received their cheques from Salcra in Kerangan, just about five minutes’ drive from our longhouse in Saratok.
Our first cousin, Tuhan (not the real name), 59, who received nearly RM10,000 had to put his cheque beneath his pillow to feel secured overnight before going to the bank the day after. His elder brother Mau, 62, put his RM12,000 cheque inside a suitcase locked with a number combination and secured inside a bigger suitcase secured by a special locking device.
There were other hilarious incidents pertaining to securing their first cheques from Salcra.
Many had to start their saving accounts with any of the banks in Saratok at that time namely Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN – better known to people in Saratok as “Bank Semadi Nadai”, meaning “a bank better than no bank at all”, Agrobank and Hong Leong Bank. Some opted to go to Sarikei to open savings account with Maybank, Public Bank, CIMB as well as Ambank.
So after more than four years, public opinions of Salcra in the area began to change for the better. Many began to point out the many good points about the large-scale and systematic development of NCR land on a commercial basis; after all Salcra’s main objective is to improve the overall well-being of the rural communities through development of lands for plantation and commercial agriculture.
On this issue, many people in the longhouses within the 20 miles radius of the Saratok Palm Oil Mill (Sapom) at my family’s former land at Sungai Entili by the roadside near the Melupa Bridge found themselves gainfully employed by the mill owned by Salcra.
Now these employees are given proper quarters by the establishment inside the mill compound. They can now take pride in being part of government employment, thanks to Salcra, a great change for the better for these formerly ignorant and needy rural residents, many of whom are my close relatives.
“I thank Salcra from the bottom of my heart,” said another of our first cousins who prefers anonymity. He has been under its employment for nearly 20 years and now has two daughters who have graduated from local varsities. Few others also enjoy the same success story and have Salcra to thank for.
Over the last two and half decades, Salcra has been paying good dividends to landowners in the Saratok-Saribas region. Now that it has developed more land under its phase six of plantation, there are 7,341 landowners participating in Salcra’s project from 241 kampung/longhouses.
This region covers 14,621 hectares of oil palm plantation as of July this year. There are six plantations in this region, namely Saratok Oil Palm Estate, Saribas Oil Palm Estate, Roban South Oil Palm Estate, Roban North Oil Palm Estate, Krian Division and Rimbas Division.
This region is part of the big palm oil industry in the state, a true catalyst for Sarawak’s rural development.
In fact in Malaysia, no single industry till this day has uplifted rural development faster than the palm oil industry. It is the catalyst of change in rural areas, bringing infrastructures, employment and new livelihoods as well as inspirations for the local populace.
It was stated by a high-powered source in September last year that a total of 119,521 people (locals and foreigners) in Sarawak were being employed in the palm oil industry. He said now the industry is the main contributor of revenue from the agriculture sector in the state.
Another proof that the initial skeptics were wrong are that most of these landowners are the proud owners of titled land plots with mixed zone status (for agricultural use only) and with the title deeds in their custody. The dividends are banked in directly to their preferred bank accounts at least twice annually, provided that their plots of land are productive with fresh fruits bunches (FFBs).
Sapom also accepts FFB from private planters or small holders apart from Salcra.
During the 2018 Gawai, I met an oil palm small holder Ibil Jaya, a retired engineer who also holds an MBA in Marketing. He is a member of Koperasi Penanam Sawit Mampan Saratok and a former board member of Lembaga Pengarah Koperasi PSM Saratok.
According to Ibil, he started planting 800 trees in 2011 and then expanded to 2000 trees in 2014. Now harvesting is done twice monthly getting between 10 and 20 tons per month. The price is about RM400 per ton at the moment which is just above “break even” price of RM300 per ton namely slightly profitable. Ibil and many of his fellow small holders send their FFB to Sapom near Melupa Bridge for processing.
Thus far, none of the landowners involved in the joint-venture, made any negative comment on Salcra or regretting their involvement. In fact all are thankful for their better livelihood brought about by their joint venture with the establishment, which was only a dream some 30 years ago.
Now landowners in Saratok and elsewhere always look forward to July and October every year for some dividends.
As I see it, Salcra has turned secondary jungles into profitable, lucrative plantations.
