The Sarawak Land and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) will pay out RM20 million dividends for this year to its 14,000 oil palm scheme settlers - all Dayaks - in two instalments, according to Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu.

That is well and good. But Jabu said one word too many by explaining that Salcra will pay out the dividends in two parts because he does not want the Dayaks to squander all the money if they are paid in one lump sum.

This earned him a rebuke from Sarawak National Party (Snap) president Edwin Dundang (right) who said that "Jabu was looking down on his own community".

"Jabu knows very well that the money belongs to the scheme settlers and they have every right to spend the money in any way they see fit," he told malaysiakini in Kuching today.

Dundang added that by Jabu's remarks, the deputy chief minister has not shown his own Dayak community any respect at all.

"I suspect the real reason is Salcra has not been doing very well and need to look for money elsewhere to pay the declared dividends," he added.

Announcing the dividends on Wednesday, Jabu who is also Salcra chairperson said that the first payment of RM10 million will be paid in January next year at the start of the school and university sessions and the second and final part before Gawai Dayak (Harvest Festival) in May.

His announcement on the dividends followed a stinging criticism from Dundang who claimed that Salcra has been giving 'miserable returns' to native customary rights (NCR) landowners involved in the agency's oil palm schemes.

Forever poor

Meanwhile, at a pre-Christmas gathering attended by about 550 people comprising NCR landowners from throughout Sarawak near Kuching last night, former deputy chief minister Daniel Tajem (right)said the RM20 million dividends mean that each scheme participant will receive on average of RM1428 per annum or RM119 per month per person.

"Of course, some people will receive more and some will receive less," he said, adding that the amount is certainly well below the poverty line. It means the Dayaks will be forever poor if they are to depend on Salcra.'

Touching on the state government's NCR land development philosophy, Tajem, now a vocal critic of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud described it as "not to starve the Dayaks and not to feed them too much otherwise they will fight back."

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini's Sarawak-based stringer.