Lawyer receives RM74 only as dividends this year from his 4.8ha NCR land developed under Salcra scheme

By Simon Peter

KUCHING, September 2, 2015 - Practising lawyer Francis Teron Kadap expressed his shock that he only received a pittance sum of R39 in July and RM35 in January this year as dividends from  his 4.8ha native customary rights (NCR) land developed under the Sarawak  Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) oil palm scheme in Stenggang, Bau-Lundu area.

"I am not exaggerating, but this is true," he told reporters here today.

Francis Teron (right) with PKR Mas Gading chairman Boniface Willy Tumek at a press conference on September 2, 2015.

Teron, who is also the secretary of PKR Mas Gading branch, said he is not the only one receiving this little  dividends from Salcra.

He said another NCR landowner Jules received RM35 dividends in 2013 and RM70 in 2014 on his 3.5ha property under Phase 4 of Stenggang plantation from Salcra.

"That effectively put him in the hardcore poverty group. His only consolation is the document of land title has been issued and is now in his custody," Teron said.

In Phase 6 of the Undan Plantation in Lundu, he said landowner and participant Tejim echoed the frustrations of the participants of the Stenggang Plantation.

"In fact, our enquires reveals that participants and land owners in Salcra oil palm plantations throughout Sarawak all have similar complaints," he said.

Teron called on NCR landowners not to renew their 25-year management agreement with Salcra once the terms have expired.

He said many of the agreements, under which the landowners allowed Salcra to develop and manage their lands over a period of 25 years, are due to expire next year.

He said they must take back and manage their land themselves.

Teron said the owners who developed their NCR land themselves make more money than those whose lands are developed by Salcra.

He called for a major shake-up in Salcra management and board of directors, saying that the Salcra schemes are a total failure.

"I call on the likes of Salcra chairman Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang, the entire board of directors and the senior management to gracefully resign from their respective posts," he said.

"I am seriously thinking of lodging police against Salcra for not being transparent to the scheme participants.

"Since the Salcra oil schemes in Stenggang, Jagoi and Undan were developed, Salcra have not shown its accounts to the scheme participants and we do not even know the profits and loss of the Salcra operations," he said.

He said the dividends payout to participants in Salcra’s plantations peaked in 2012 when it  paid out a total of RM101 mil.

"However, in 2013 and 2014, the dividend payout plunged by 50% compared to the payout in 2012, to RM50 mil and RM52 mil respectively," he said.

He stressed salcra has failed in its three principal KPIs in Stenggang and the Undan plantations in the Bau-Lundu region.

"They were supposed to eradicate poverty, create employment and improve the living standards of the natives in the rural areas but instead they seem to have perpetuated poverty.

"Whatever employment opportunities that have been created in the estates have instead benefited the foreign labour they lamented," he claimed.

According to Teron, all attempts by the participants to enquire from Salcra the reasons for the miserable amount of dividends they received the last two years have not yielded any satisfactory answers.

"The lack of transparency with which Salcra deals with the participants over the dividend issue has angered almost all the participants.

"We do not even know how much of our loan is still left unpaid they said.

"The very low dividends income they received from Salcra have made many participants very vulnerable and many have sold off their land in the plantations to raise cash for their family upkeep and for children education.

"The other sore points for them are the delay in the issuance of land titles for land in the plantation and the very low rate of wages offered for labour in the plantation," Teron said.

He said the landowners and participants in these plantations noted that Salcra is under the care and direction of  Jabu, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister, and three other full and senior ministers, one of which is Tan Sri Dr James Masing ,who is the Minister of Land Development.

"The scheme participants are understandably puzzled as to why Salcra has not been able to achieve any of its stated objectives.

"The depreciating value of the ringgit has now added to their anxieties. They are aware that the decrease will result in an increase in the cost of some critical input, particularly fertilizer.

"With the current low price of FFB they are worried that they may not be able to receive any dividends at all at the end of this year," he said

Teron said the landowners and participants are now demanding that the government take cognizant of the impact of the GST and the rapidly increasing cost of goods on their quality of life.

He said they are asking the state government to immediately issue the land titles on all parcels of land that still have not been issued with titles and thereafter release them and their land from their bond to Salcra.

"They can’t help but notice small holders are doing much better than them and they want the opportunity to manage their land themselves," he said.