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 Daiken Should Consider the Rights of the LocalsBy MC Wong 2002-09-27 | Since the early 2002, the 28 Iban families of Rumah Sanah and one family of Rumah Nyawing have been threatened with the lost of their land to a tree plantation. As of mid 2002, 11 families including the headman of Rumah Sanah have accepted compensation of RM250 (US$1=RM3.8)per hectare, while 17 families had refused to let go of their land. Like other indigenous communities affected by land based development projects, the Rh Sanah and Rh Nyawing community became divided. Some believes in what they were told that the authority could not be challenged. Others insist on their rights according to the indigenous custom. Knowing their disadvantage position under the modern law, those who accepted the compensation seek to get the second best offer, while the those who stand on their native rights fight for justice and dignity. "We have been living here over the last 15 years. Our farms are established according to our adat. We have no other land to move to. We could not go back to the places where we came from as there were land shortage and we had given out our customary rights at our former communities since we moved." -- Jalin "This land is our means of survival. We plant paddy, fruit, vegetable, and black pepper, which provide us a reasonable living. We would protect our land at all cost from being taken over by Daiken plantation." -- Jambu "We are not asking for much. As indigenous people of Sarawak, we have the right to live on this land. The Bugis (former migrant from Indonesia) were given citizenship after working with a failed cocoa plantation in less than ten years time. They occupied state land and are now better secured than ours. Where is justice?" - Women of Rumah Nyawing. Sincere early 2002, the 28 Iban families of Rumah Sanah and one family of Rumah Nyawing are threatened to loose their land to a tree plantation. As of mid 2002, 11 families including the headman of Rumah Sanah have accepted compensation of RM250 per hectare, while 17 families refused to let go their land. Like other indigenous communities affected by land based development projects, the community became divided. Some believes in what they were told that the authority could not be challenged. Others insist on their rights according to indigenous custom. Knowing their disadvantage position under the modern law, the former seeks to get the second best offer, while the latter fight for justice and dignity. The British colonial government set 1st January 1958 for state law to recognise native customary right over the land they cleared. Land cleared after that date would not be recognised unless approval is obtained from the district office. Such official notion provides those land with native reserve status, which provides native community usufruct right. However, the indigenous communities continue to practice their adat customs occupying land for farming and other purposes like their ancestors who lived in this Borneo Island far earlier than any modern form of government. Rumah Sanah and Ruman Nyawing (the later composed of 12 families, also affected by a Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development - Mardi project) are one of the many examples that native customary lands are being licensed for the development of large plantation and other industrial projects. In the eyes of these two communities, the Malaysian government, which merged Sarawak and Sabah with Malaya into one nation, is not impartial and also religiously bias. Three other Muslim communities in the same plantation seem to have been better accommodated. Recent field interviews by NGOs with residents of Kampang Wawasan Rajawali, Kampang Wawasan Jaya (both of mixed Malays, Bugis and other Muslim ethnic groups) and Sunggai Labang (Penan Muslim) reveals that they have no worry of loosing their land to the plantation. Following the precedence of a dispute settlement at the neighouring longhouse communities of Similajau with the oil palm plantation, Rajawali, a Peninsular based Malaysian Company, the longhouse community are asking for reserve of 5 acres of land for each identity card holder (citizen aged 12 years and above). Those members of Rumah Sanah refused the taking over of their land had sent letter to Daiken Sarawak to express their objection in March 2002. They also lodged statement with the Forestry Department in August 2002 to request permission for continuous use of the forest reserve (state) land at Mile 32 of Bintulu-Bakun Road where they presently occupied. The lawyer representing the community members opined that the company should consider the locals' needs. "The plantation would have nothing to loose by reserving a few hundred hectares of the licensed area for the existing communities. Amicable solution could be reached by good will. We already have enough cases of violence in this nature of land disputes, which resulted in loss of human lives such as the case of Bakong police shooting at the longhouse people and the Ulu Niah clash between the local Ibans and the plantation workers." The Bintulu based legal adviser emphasised. NGOs and many conscience public personalities feel rather helpless in these present profit-driven development policy that the state authority is unable to accommodate the needs of local community. In the first hand, why do the government not allocate lands to needy indigenous people or avoid licensing concession to development projects that overlapped the native customary land? Daiken Sarawak Sendirian Berhad (Limited Company) is a Medium density fiberboard (MDF) manufacturer. It has a factory in Kidurong Industrial Estate in Bintulu with an annual production capacity of 105,000 cubic metres. 95% of its production is exported to Japan. The company owned by two Japanese firms namely Daiken Corp (55%), Itochu Corp (15%), a Sarawak statutory body, Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corp (15%), and two local logging companies, Proexcel Sdn. Bhd (10%) and Limbang Trading (Limbang) Sdn. Bhd. Daiken Corp is a company of Itochu group. Proexcel is a subsidiary of Rimbunan Hijau group and Limbang Trading owned by former Sarawak State Minister, James Wong's family. Daiken engaged the Kuching based Plantacia Sdn Bhd to carry out (Preliminary) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project in fulfilling the law requirement. One critique is that Sarawak State law does not require detailed EIA for whatever large-scale agricultural projects. The report obviously does not take a neutral stance to explore options of land use. Despite its recognition of community cultivation over at least the last one and a half decades, it states that the land is of serious limitation or severe limitations for agricultural purposes. ". . .therefore, suggest that the proposed area is not feasible for agriculture and the tree planting proposal does not compete with agriculture for land use." (p.17) During a recent field visit, NGO members were told by the community members that they were never interview by any Daiken consultant. However, the EIA report says, " The people interviewed in all the 5 areas were all in favour of the tree planting project proposed by Daiken Sarawak Sdn Bhd." (p13) The report recommends that "..it is desirable that the local community be employed as far as possible as contribution towards, uplifting the socio-economic well-being of the people.." (p57) Unfortunately, it is found that there is no one in those communities were employed by the contractor of the project. Observation taken by NGOs at the ground level of the plantation revealed that the implementation is not in compliance with the environmental mitigation measures recommended by the EIA. Serious erosion process is taking place in the non-terraced hill, while no cover crop is found. With fast growing Acacia species introduced from Australia, the plantation is in no way comparable to the natural diversity of native forest. Despite the threat of rot disease discovered in the locally grown acacia plantation, Daiken is determined to pursue the 5, 500 hectares plantation. Environmentalists have given warning on the stress of ecosystem to mono-crop chemical farming. Soil mining could be expected in the long run as the bio-mass are taken away whenever the trees are harvested. Again, such practice is in contradict with indigenous farming system, which has sustained for several centuries. International studies reveals small holders always manage higher land productivity than large plantation. Local study also shows that an Iban community in Sarikei engages in agroforestry activities gets far better income and profit than the plantation sector. When approached, the managing director of Daiken Sarawak explained that the need of tree supply from the plantation is not urgent because currently all of their MDF raw materials come from local plywood mills and sawmills in a form of wood wastes. The tree-mass from the plantation would form only 10 to 20 % of the overall requirement in the future. Therefore, why couldn't the customary land of the local indigenous people be spared? In a follow up contact, the director said that he wants to hold a three or four-ways meeting between the community, Forestry Department and Daiken Sarawak. "Such meeting engaging the various concerned parties would serve best the interest of everyone." a Japanese NGO member expressed. Image Links
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