news analysis

According to press reports of May 11, Sarawak state Social and Urbanisation Minister Datuk James Masing said the government had decided not to be too rigid when asking repayment for the housing loans from villagers.

He said: "Those who earn a low income will be allowed to pay between RM100 and RM150 per month (instead of the average RM300 per month over a 25-year repayment period agreed previously).

We are touched by the apparent 'sensitivity' of the Sarawak state government to the conditions of the Bakun re-settlers. However, it is evident that this sensitivity is more apparent than real.

First of all, the repayment amount of RM300 a month over a 25-year period cited by the state minister amounts to a total repayment of RM91,000. In other words, not only is the state government pricing the shoddy housing for the Bakun re-settlers at an exorbitant sum of RM51,000, it is going to charge them interest on the repayment. How generous!

Secondly, is it not a fact that the state government has not paid out the compensation for the re-settlers' old apartments in Balui, but has instead held them back as down payments against the price of the new housing?

Isn't it true that in most cases, the amount of compensation for their old apartments, is of the order of RM30,000?

Be fair

In other words, these low-income folk have been forced to make a down payment of 60 percent on the shoddy resettlement apartments. This is a condition that is not even imposed on high-cost, high-priced housing, where the down payment is now as low as 20 percent.

Thirdly, if this is the case, then why are they required to pay RM300 a month for a 25-year period?

Fourthly, since the state government is so 'generous' as to charge the re-settlers interest, the state government should, in turn pay them interest for the period during which their compensation was held back.

In most instances, compensation was not paid to the re-settlers until some months after they had relocated to the resettlement at Sg Asap. Moreover, this compensation was paid in separate instalments.

The state government should also pay interest on the retained compensation for their old apartments.

In view of the above, we call upon the Sarawak state government to be just to the Bakun re-settlers and (a) write off the price of the shoddy resettlement apartments, and (b) pay out, with interest, the retained compensation for their old apartments.

The Bakun re-settlers have been cheated time and time again. They have been lied to. They have been bullied.

They were originally promised three hectares of land per family. Then, the land in the area was given to Ekran, Samling, Sarawak Enterprises (formerly Dunlop Estates Bhd) and others; and the allocation for the re-settlers was cut to 1.2 hectares.

Sand, not soil

To add insult to injury, they were then pushed into a small area: From sharing a 70,000 hectare area in Balui, they were pushed into a 4,000 hectare area. As a result, several of the communities have been allotted land which is useless for sustained cultivation - it is sandy soil, a white sandy substrate beneath thin topsoil.

For the minister to now challenge the people to be productive on unproductive land is cruel in the extreme. He should, instead, be busy looking into obtaining alternative land for those communities who have been allotted sand, not soil.

Moreover, isn't it true that the re-settlers have been charged premium on the land allotted to them? In other words, it is false to say that the miserly 1.2 hectares is compensation that is awarded free to them. It is not.

Can the minister confirm not only that the re-settlers have been charged premium, but that the premium they were charged was higher than the premium charged to Ekran for the 10,000 hectares which was originally supposed to be part of the resettlement?

The truth gets even more horrifying. In the resettlement, allocation of the 1.2 hectare plot was tied to accepting - and paying for - an apartment. No apartment, no land. Many families, fearful of their ability to pay, opted not to take an apartment.

These families are now not only cramped into an apartment that is much smaller and shoddier than their old ones, they now have no land and have to share the 1.2 hectare plot with their extended families.

Real horror

This is a recipe for poverty, planned poverty - for a people who previously may have regularly been short of cash, but were not poor.

Just imagine, in Kedah, a farmer with one hectare of land would fall either into the poverty group or be in the low income category, one reason why Kedah has amongst the highest poverty rates in the country and is among the states with the lowest average household income.

Now, here is the Bakun resettlement, which planned to allot people 1.2 hectares, despite the fact there's no shortage of land in Sarawak.

Now for the real horror. This 'model' is being extended elsewhere in Sarawak. Thus, for example, the people in Tatau displaced by the Borneo Pulp and Paper plantation are also being resettled with the same 1.2 hectares per apartment. Is this development or is it oppression?

DR SYED HUSIN ALI is president of the Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM).