"It is easy to be pessimistic about the future development of Sarawak. The problems fall into three basic groups: physical, socio-cultural and economic. The pessimism induced by the size of these problems must be tempered by the progress achieved in the post-Second World War era and more particularly by the tangible results of development in the last half the decade."

This was what Dr James C Jackson, Leverhulme Fellow in Commonwealth Studies, University of Hull, wrote 37 years ago in a comprehensive study on the challenges facing the East Malaysian state, ' Sarawak a geographical survey of a developing state'.

Then, Sarawak was emerging as an independent state through its federation with Malaya.

Between 1841 (when an Englishman, James Brooke ( right ), was installed the first White Rajah in an area equivalent to what is now Kuching division) and 1946 (when a much-enlarged Sarawak was ceded to the British as a Crown Colony), it would not be untrue to say the administration was focused almost entirely on administering and keeping the peace and tranquility among the myriad of ethnic races, and allowing the largely Chinese mercantile community to carry on their commerce and draw taxes from them.

There were limited funds available for anything else, except some basic infrastructure (such as some roads, water supply and electricity in urban areas). Schools were built either by missionary groups, Chinese support groups or Malay community groups.

Agriculture the key

There was progress, albeit limited in nature, in building basic infrastructure in some of the more inaccessible areas in this sparsely-populated state of about 124,000 sq km (almost the same size as Peninsular Malaysia or almost equivalent to 40 percent of the country's total land space).

This was achieved, according to Dr Jackson, due to what was called the rehabilitation and development programmes instituted by the colonial government in the period 1947 to 1963.

"Essentially these were public investment programmes financed to a considerable extent from the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund and from Colombo Plan sources," he wrote.

With the launching of the First Malaysia Plan (1966-1970), the federal government became the substitute financier to the tune of RM463.7 million. The single biggest allocation of RM131.4 million went to agriculture and rural development, followed by roads (RM79.8 million) and education (RM45.6 million).

The prevailing view was that "agriculture and rural development hold the key position because the income and living standards of the rural population lag far behind those of the urban dwellers, and agriculture will remain the basis of the export economy".

Then, Sarawak's income was largely derived from the export of new primary products and in 1965, over four-fifths of total export earnings, excluding re-exports of petroleum, came from timber, rubber and pepper. The economy was, and still is, dependent on the export trade and is thus extremely vulnerable to fluctuations in the prices of the major export commodities in the world markets.

Between 1960 and 1965, annual exports (excluding petroleum exports and re-exports) were always lower than imports (excluding crude oil imports). But the diversification of industries, especially 1970s onwards, started to change the balance of trade position.

Mutual benefits

Today, with a population of about 2.2 million, or three times that of 1960, Sarawak's balance of trade has changed beyond anticipation. Figures released by the Department of Statistics show that the state registered a favourable trade balance of RM7.4 billion in the first five months of 2003, or 63 percent higher than the corresponding surplus of RM4.4 billion recorded in the same period last year.

The substantial increase in the trade balance was the direct result of a stronger growth of 42 percent, or RM4.1 billion, in exports as against an increase of 20 percent, or RM1.1 billion, in imports between the two periods under review.

Sarawak's total export earnings during the first five months of this year totaled RM13.9 billion, up by RM4.1 billion compared with the same period last year. Compare this, for example, with the 1965 exports totaling RM213.1 million (excluding petroleum exports and re-exports) for the whole of that year!

The biggest revenue earner was liquefied natural gas (LNG), accounting for 38 percent of total exports, followed by crude petroleum (26 percent), plain plywood, sawn logs, and sawn timber.

So from the economic viewpoint, Sarawak has progressed much in the last four decades, the process apparently greatly accelerated after 1970s with the discovery of LNG and the start of exports from Bintulu.

Social scientist Dr Andrew Aries argued that much of the development is funded from federal revenue accruing from oil/gas exports from Sarawak.

"But benefits are mutual, for Sarawak and for Malaysia," he said, explaining that Sarawak benefits too from the interaction with the rest of Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.

A frustrated lot

But there's a need too to look at the macro-economic level, at what each of the major races the Dayak/Iban, Chinese and Malay/Melanau have fared since Independence.

Lawyer-politician Kilat Beriak, for one, describes the Dayak, especially sub-group Iban - the state's single biggest indigenous group who make up about 30 percent of the population - as "a frustrated lot".

According him, the best way to equate development and progress for a people is their standards of living and economic levels not only since they gained Independence but in the context of plural society like Sarawak how they compare with other communities such as the Chinese and the Malay/Melanau.

But most Iban intellectuals, including Kilat, agree that the Iban themselves are to be blamed for their present dilemma which is partly caused by the common perception that their politicians are a "quarrelsome lot". Examples are in the endless squabbles within and between Dayak-based parties Sarawak National Party (Snap) and Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS).

"We cannot really blame other people for what may become of us," Kilat acknowledged.

Why can't the Dayak be represented by one strong political party like the Chinese, who have the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp), and the Malay/Melanau, who are represented by Parti Pesaka-Bumiputra Bersatu Sarawak (PBB)?

One of the answers which may be closer to the truth is that the Iban, being a homogenous group, has a democratic social structure where everyone is considered equal.

"A tuai rumah , or longhouse headman, has to listen to his anakbiaks (the longhouse people) or he will be replaced," according to a government officer. In less kinder terms, a Caucasian with a long residency term in Sarawak observed that "everyone wants to rush to the stage and grab the mike and sing."

This is nothing to do with education for education is not lacking among the Dayak community who have benefited as much as other communities from scholarships and other aid schemes from the government.

"It could be part of the natural or inherent characteristics that tend to emphasise more on self or individual benefits which is not necessary a bad thing in the long run perhaps," he added.

Dr Aries believed that the federal government is genuinely trying to help what he has also described as the more disadvantaged Sarawak's Dayak and Sabah's Kadazandusun.

"But if they continue to quarrel, it's not going to make it any easier for the authorities to assist."

Land conversion

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, the state's fourth chief executive since Merdeka in 1963, has sought to change the developmental outlook of Sarawakians with his "Politics of Development" since succeeding his former political nemesis and uncle Abdul Rahman Yakub in 1981.

He has been able to carry this out rather successfully, with help from cabinet colleagues, particularly Alfred Jabu, one of his two deputy chief ministers, who takes care of the rural development portfolio. The ministry is centred on finding the best way to make fuller use of what is known in Sarawak as native customary rights (NCR) land.

NCR land constitutes about one-fifth of Sarawak land area, or about 25,000 sq kilometers, minus the numerous rivers and streams and inaccessible areas.

Previously Taib had been successfully in experimenting with some NCR lands, bringing in investors, especially Peninsular Malaysia-based plantation companies, to develop them and ensuring at the same time the original land owners have a stake in it.

This conforms with his belief that Sarawak's best hope in turning its large tracts of native-owned lands into estates or plantations for palm oil. But a lot of NCR land owners are unhappy at the slow progress. Some of the better educated Dayak even see that there may be a deliberate attempt to slow the process of land use for political reasons.

Taib has probably read a lot about the challenges that colonial officers faced in trying to develop a sparsely-populated state with poor infrastructure and poor soil condition.

"Size may be an illusion when fertility or poor soil condition is a problem," one agricultural officer told malaysiakini.

Social activist and Bidayuh intellectual Peter Minos has even suggested that in order to help themselves, the community - who make up less than 10 percent of Sarawak's population but live mostly in Kuching division and nearer urban centres - should be bold enough to convert their land holdings into mixed zone land so they could use the titles for business or to help with their children's education.

Similarly, according to media practitioner Wayne Tarman, perhaps all NCR land should be converted into mixed zone land and issued with titles.

"It's up to the land owners what they want to do with them. Some may sell for a quick profit but a great majority will keep the land, mortgage them to the banks for their business ventures or develop their own mini-estates."

Where do the Sarawak Malay/Melanau who make up about 27 percent of the state's population stand after Independence?

"Happy and certainly content," was how one social scientist described them.

"And they probably feel that after the Iban and Melanau, it should be the turn of a Malay to be chief minister," he said, referring to Sarawak's post-Independence first two Iban chief ministers (Stephen Kalong Ningkan and Penghulu Tawi Sli) and two Melanau chief ministers (Abdul Rahman Yakub and now Abdul Taib Mahmud).

Contented Chinese

And the Chinese, which represents 29 percent of Sarawak's population?

"They've done extremely well for themselves, even though Supp was initially opposed to Malaysia, but after 1970, when the first state coalition government was formed with what was basically seen as the then uneasy alliance between two erstwhile foes (Supp and Malay/Melanau-based Parti Bumiputra Bersatu, then led by Abdul Rahman Yakub), the Chinese-based party has been a strong force within the state ruling coalition," he said.

Sarawak Chinese are a contented lot, and have always proven to be staunchly behind Supp which has helped to add political stability in Sarawak for the past three decades.

The period between 1963 and 1970 was seen as one with political and security uncertainties, with the traditional chieftain-type of politics very prominent and the external and internal security threat from the communists.

Ningkan - the first chief minister - was seen as a competent but fiery and nationalistic type of leader who got into trouble when in the face of an internal political revolt against his leadership he tried to fight the federal authorities by playing up on feelings about Borneanisation of state and federal posts in Sarawak. After three years, he lost his job as chief minister.

But his successor Penghlu Tawi Sli was thrust into a job that was described by one political historian as too large for him to handle, and not surprisingly he was helped a great deal by others, including from the federal leaders, when he was chief minister from 1966 till the state's first direct elections in 1970.

The beginning of a new economic and political transformation for Sarawak came in fact after 1970. At the beginning of a new decade, the word "development" started to be on everyone's lip, especially after Abdul Rahman Yakub ( left ), the then chief minister, got the LNG plant set up in Bintulu with a new deep-sea port, both of which are thriving today and of some national economic importance.

When his nephew took over at the beginning of the following decade as chief minister, he started to build on the foundation, and led Sarawak to grow out of its agrarian posture into a new world of industrialisation.

"From basic subsistence farming into hi-tech," was how one economist summed up Sarawak's quantum leap from the days before the Malaysian federation to present-day Sarawak.