Sarawak - Articles Massive oil palm plantations take over native lands Natives forced to surrender lands and become plantation labourers OIL palm has been found to be less productive on Sarawak soil than it is on most parts of Peninsular Malaysia. But the Sarawak State Government is closing in on more and more joint ventures with private companies to open up new plantations in the state. Large stretches of land have been leased out to the private companies for the development of large-scale oil palm plantations that encroach no end on native customary land (NCL). Under the LCDA's programme of estate and plantation development where thousands of acres of land under customary tenure (with no titles) will be opened up with outside investors providing the necessary capital, the pribumi are slowly but surely being forced to surrender all rights to their land and becoming paid employees on the plantations. This "in situ" development strategy will also involve the regrouping of longhouses in resettlement schemes and the creation of model villages. With this development, native customary lands will no longer exist, and the longhouse as a social, cultural and economic entity will be destroyed. Intent on achieving its primary objective of drawing them completely into the market economy, and putting a stop to shifting agriculture, the State Government has been going all out to entice, with social and financial incentives, the headmen of the longhouses in the designated Development Area into condoning the land surveying activities and the ensuing plantation ventures. Not all their efforts have paid off. TR Rayong ak Lapik, 66, the headman of an Iban longhouse situated in the Baram district is dead set against this exploitation. Approximately 70,000 hectares of his community's land have been developed as oil palm plantations by the LCDA, but they have not seen a cent of compensation. Only after the oil palm trees had been planted did the headmen receive letters from the State Government. Arrests Aware that encroachment usually takes place after land has been surveyed, many of the pribumi are not allowing the Land & Survey Department to survey their NCL. Rayong was arrested twice by the police when he and the people of his longhouse stopped the L&S Department workers from surveying their land. On the tenth attempt made to survey their land, Rayong and his people confiscated the surveying equipment, which subsequently led to his arrests. Both arrests were made without warrants and he was not informed that he was being arrested. The police excused the arrests, saying that they were necessary to ensure that no damage had been done to the surveying equipment. Yet one of the arrests was made one week after the equipment had been checked and it had been confirmed that no damage had been done. Rayong's only response to the police when questioned as to his motives for obstructing the surveyor from carrying out his duties was, "The surveyor entered into our land without permission. The land is our customary land." Although he is being charged for obstructing land surveying work, Rayong is satisfied that he fought and that while the case is pending, other plots of land surrounding his longhouse would not be disturbed. He is astute in his belief that as the descendant of a long line of headmen, it is his duty to protect their land. And so even the State Council member in cooperation with the Penghulu could not persuade him with numerous incentives and money to agree to any plantation venture. Rayong's is not the only arrest made because of their resistance against land surveying and oil palm plantation ventures. When the people from TR Uban ak Gaek's longhouse set up blockades in the form of wooden gates against contractors from a private plantation company, five of them, three women, were arrested, and held under lockup for 10 days. Uban anak Gaek, "We will keep on fighting" Incredibly enough, a man and his wife from Uban's longhouse, who were in Selangau to buy supplies, and had had no part in the blockade, were also arrested. They were just passing the police station when the police called them in. As soon as they entered the station compound, they were arrested. The husband spent one night and the wife four nights in the local jail. Uban immediately consulted a lawyer in Bintulu and the case was called for a hearing. Uban is adamant that since at least three generations of his family have been occupying the land, he is not going to give in easily. When it was reported that about 100 acres of his longhouse's NCL had been sold to a private company for the price of RM500 per acre by the LCDA, Uban and his people were enraged. They proceeded to send out summons to the company for encroaching on their land. In response the company changed its registered name, and the case was delayed. Uban and his people are still awaiting the outcome of the new summons. Thugs TR Reggie, the head of another Iban longhouse in the Baram district, and the people in his longhouse were also steadfast in their decision to stop land surveying activities done on their land, which covers approximately 20,000 hectares. On the fourth attempt to survey the land, the equipment belonging to the L&S Department was confiscated by the pribumi. The ensuing fight between the pribumi and the contractors brought about police involvement. When the policemen came to their longhouse three days after the incident, the pribumi welcomed them and gave them all the information they needed. The police then invited two of them to Bakong to treat them to drinks at the coffee shop. At about 4 p.m. they were suddenly handcuffed. When they arrived at the police station, they were told to strip and were not given anything to eat for one day and night. Only after they had been held for three days did they get a chance to make a statement. And on the fourth day they went to court and were imprisoned for four months. When Reggie openly picked a fight with the judge over the ruling, he was imprisoned for a week. Events leading up to Reggie's imprisonment were also marred by the police's thug-like arresting of Ensom, one of the pribumi in Reggie's longhouse. Reggie was not at his longhouse when the police came for him, and so his son called Ensom, a neighbour, to meet the policemen. As soon as Ensom came out of his unit, he was accosted by the police, pushed face down to the ground, and handcuffed while one policeman stepped on his neck. In a show of defiance, the other people in the longhouse came out and physically fought against the arrest. When Ensom demanded to see the warrant for his arrest, the police were forced to let him go, because obviously they did not have one. The events reported above are only a small part of other similar, and some even worst, incidences of intimidation and harrassment that the pribumi have had to suffer at the hands of the authorities. Oil palm plantations are being developed all over Sarawak, with large tracts of land leased out to private companies. Just in the Belaga area, almost 60,000 hectares were leased out to only 5 companies, each holding an average of 10,000 hectares. These plantations do offer labour jobs to the pribumi in the area, but at only RM8 a day. It is sad to think that the pribumi have had to give up their lands for private leases and are now being systematically reduced to being low-wage plantation workers, when they were once masters of their own land, living free and wealthy in resources and sustenance. It is even sadder to think that since the LCDA is the final authority over these lands, there is every possibility that the pribumi may never get their lands back after the venture period comes to an end. Should LCDA decide to sell the plantation, the pribumi would lose their lands and end up landless plantation workers. Their self-sufficient agricultural tradition would be gone for good.