The opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) has warned that unless urgent action is taken to address housing and other needs of the growing influx of rural migrants, the city and towns in Sarawak would be in a messy situation.

Debating on the state budget 2005 in the state legislative assembly, the sole opposition state assemblyperson Chiew Chin Sing (DAP-Kidurong) said yesterday that urban population increased from 15.5 per cent in 1970 to nearly 50 per cent of the total state population by 2000.

The trend is likely to continue in the future, and it is predicted that 75 per cent of the state's population will reside in the urban centres by 2010, he added.

"Are we ready for it? Will there be enough jobs, housing, the infrastructure support for transportation?

"Apparently, we still have a long way to go," Chiew said, adding that one immediate problem is housing for rural migrants.

"We have to understand that these rural folks are first-timers in coming to live in towns. It is almost like the old days, when the Chinese came to Sarawak with nothing to their names, but only their two hands to work and make a living.

"From the very day of their arrival, they had to face the question of survival, live or die, and whether they can make it here.

" Our rural folks who have moved to the urban areas have to use all their rural skills and to re-invent themselves, pushing the boundary lines, just so that they can survive in the foreign and new urban environment.

Survival instinct

According to Chiew, "the natural rural survival instinct tells them that they must find a piece of land, best near a stream and build a langkow, (a reference to squatter hut) and start from there.

"The man would then go out looking for work and the woman plant vegetables in the nearby woods in preparation for the next meal.

"The news of survival gets back to the rural areas and so more come and that is how our lankow colony come to be, with quite a number of them at Tg Kidurong in Bintulu", he said

Chiew said the government should allocate plots of land but only to those really in need of them.

"I believe this is the right way for us to lend a helping hand to those who try to make a living in the towns," he said;

The DAP leader said that one of the factors for rural-to-urban migration is that it is hard nowadays to find a living in the rural areas.

"Though there are about 25,000 sq km of native customary rights (NCR) land constituting about one fifth of the Sarawak land area, the problem is that most of these lands are agriculture land and with no titles.

Land titles wanted

There have been calls that these land holdings near the urban areas be converted into mixed zone land and issued with titles.

"The land owners should then be able to decide what to do with the land themselves,.They could use the titles for mortgage to the bank for business or to develop their own mini estates or even sell some of the land for cash to help with their children's education.

"In this way not all of them would not be coming to town to look for a living or find cash,' he added.

"But because these lands have not been issued with titles there has been a lot of conflicts between the natives who claim that these lands are theirs and the palm oil plantation company or timber company.

"This is happening not only in Bintulu, near the outskirt of the town area, but also all over Sarawak," Chiew added.