Sarawak DAP chairperson Chong Chieng Jen today denied assertions by Chief Minister Adenan Satem that over 100,000 workers would lose their jobs should the Big Six group of timber companies be broken up.

On Friday, Adenan said that such a break up would disrupt the state’s timber industry and lead to the economic collapse of Sibu.

"In fact, more jobs would be created and the workers would have better benefits," Chong told reporters in Kuching today.

"More workers would get to be bosses of their own, rather than be enslaved by the Big Six."

Of the five million hectares of land reserved for timber production, the largest six timber companies hold a combined total of 3.72 million hectares (9.2 million acres), or 74.4 percent of the state's timber concessions, according to figures publicly reported by the companies.

Listed by size of timber concessions held, the companies are: Samling Group, which holds 1.2 million hectares; Rimbunan Hijau Group (1 million hectares); Shin Yang Group (0.5 million hectares); Ta Ann Group (0.43 million hectares); WTK Group (0.36 million hectares) and KTS Group (0.14 million hectares).

Sarawak's total land mass is 12.4 million hectares. A million hectares of land has been gazetted as totally protected areas.

Sarawak produced 8.7 million cubic metres of timber in 2014, worth RM7.2 billion, according to the Sarawak Timber Association (STA).

Soon after taking office in March 2014, Adenan had promised to crackdown on illegal logging in Sarawak and "put the fear of God into people who are dishonest".

Seized illegal timber that year amounted to 46,216 cubic metres, according the state Resource Planning and Environment Ministry

Last May, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) reported that its crackdown against illegal loggers in Sarawak saw 500 accounts of 375 companies, valued at RM560 million, frozen. None of the companies investigated were from the the Big Six.

"Previously Taib (former CM Abdul Taib Mahmud) had said the same thing as Adenan did, justifying the granting of major government contracts to CMS (Cahaya Mata Sarawak Bhd). He also said many Sarawakians would lose their jobs," Chong said.

CMS, a construction conglomerate listed on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange, has been accused by opposition lawmakers and NGOs of benefiting from a cement monopoly and from being awarded untendered public contracts.

"It shows Adenan's true colours that he is only continuing what Taib has left behind; to protect the haves and cronies of BN. The candidate announced for Repok (SUPP's Huang Tiong Sii) is a timber tycoon as well, having previously worked for Rimbunan Hijau," Chong said.

Sarawak's intact forests are being degraded at one of the highest rates in the world, according to a report by Global Forest Watch released last November. The report said timber concessions cover half the state of Sarawak.

Local NGOs and opposition lawmakers have for years lodged reports to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, charging that that logging, and the construction of dams, were abuses of native rights.