RM5 million gift to four villages

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ON May 24, the people of four villages — Long Terawan, Long Panai, Long Ukok, and Long Patan — in the upper reaches of the Baram signed a supplemental agreement with PUSAKA KTS (PKTS) Forests Plantation Sdn Bhd that led to an immediate and long-term impact on their lives.

FOR YOU: A community leader receiving a mock cheque from Sarudu.

Through the agreement, the people in these remote villages have gained a windfall of RM5,000,000 (five million ringgit) to be paid to them over five years.

BACKGROUND

PKTS, a joint venture company between Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC), a government agency, and KTS Holdings Sdn Bhd has been given a licence (LPF/0011) to operate on about ninety thousand (90,000) hectares of state land between Batang Baram, Sungai Apoh and Sungai Tutoh in Baram District near the four settlements.

To ensure the area planted by PKTS does not encroach into Native Customary Rights land of the local people, the Lands and Survey Department will be requested by both parties to carry out a perimetre survey of the area to separate NCR land from state land.

When PKTS entered the said state land, they found the people of the four villages there in need of assistance to improve their living conditions as well as their livelihood.

As a gesture of goodwill and compassion for the people, PKTS  pledged to plant oil palm on a total of 500 hectares of land with 200 hectares for the people of Long Terawan and Long Panai and 100 hectares for those of Long Ukok and Long Patan.

The plantation is based on the size of the population of each village.

PKTS also undertook to plant and nurture the oil palm trees until the first harvest before handing over the estate to the people.

However, PKTS found out that oil palm cultivation was not feasible after the area experienced severe floods over the last few years. Consequently, PKTS decided to plant Acasia Mangium.

To honour the terms and conditions of the Principal Agreement, both parties agreed to opt for cash payment based on RM10,000 per hectare for the agreed size of land — hence the cash payment for the villagers.

IMPACT ON LIVELIHOOD

While the cash payment is an instant boost to the people, the bigger impact on their livelihood will be the indirect intangible effects of establishment of the planted forest near their villages.

The biggest impact will be road accessibility to the villages as the company will have to build roads to transport materials and workers to the site of the planted forest.

LONG-TERM RETURNS

Under the agreement, PKTS is also committed to helping the local people plant acacia on the native land of the locals and buy back from them when the trees mature. This will ensure handsome long-term returns for the local people as the trees can be harvested after eight years.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

A more immediate benefit will be employment opportunities the plantation offers to the local people while the more enterprising among them can tap the spinoff business opportunities created by the planted forest industry.

Long Panai and Long Terawan each received RM500,000 while Long Ukok and Long Patan each received RM125,000. The balance is to be paid yearly within five years.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

As expected, an enterprise, involving such a large area of land, has attracted criticisms and opposition, especially through online news portals and blogs. Such ventures seem to be lightning rods for environmentalists, human rights activists and opposition politicians.   They liken the supplemental agreement to a Sales and Purchase Agreement of NCR.

Often, these outcries and litigations are not without merit — indeed the rights of native land-owners should never be trampled upon. Land is almost sacred to the natives and if things were not clearly spelt out to them, any business proposal put forward would immediately raise their suspicions and emotions that could cloud the search for a compromise.

This lack of transparency, compounded by instigations from outside, is the source of disputes that often led to protracted court cases that usually ended up with both parties suffering losses.

Contrary to the accusation from a local website that the local community of Long Terawan was never consulted by the headman, a referendum was actually held following a heated debate where 73 to 82 per cent of the “ketua bilek” (heads of household) voted overwhelmingly in support of PKTS. Those in the opposition brought along their lawyer to dissuade the people but to no avail.

Temenggong Pahang Deng commented that “no other companies had ever consulted or negotia-ted with us and above all else, assisted us like PKTS.”

He added that the villagers would need the financial muscles of big corporations to open up the area. These corporations have the expertise, the logistics and the manpower.

Pemanca Joseph Ngau Lian fully agrees with him.

Robert Laing, political secretary to the Chief Minister, said PKTS need not sign any agreement as it is operating only on state land.

Puan Neuter anak Pasakan of Long Ukok appealed to PKTS to develop her area as soon as possible.

Even though she knows her children would benefit when PKTS opens up her area to the outside world, she would like to see this happen in her lifetime.

Although the agreement between PKTS and the villagers does not involve direct planting of crops on their land, both parties must be lauded for their patient and rational negotiations which started on November 30, 2007, when a nine-member team from PKTS, led by Dato Vincent Chapman, met the people of Long Panai.

The arrangement, sealed amicably between PKTS and the people of the four villages, has disproved the notion that the natives will always lose out when they enter into any agreement with big corporations.

PKTS has spent more than RM1,000,000 on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) on the four villages since its entry into the four villages.

This includes cash donations amounting to RM175,000 to flood victims of three villages in the area.