The Incidence of Dayak Poverty

Posted by Alex S

“The BN government continue to deny the serious poverty situation in Sarawak. How are we to solve this problem through denial of facts. What is the purpose of projecting a wrong picture over a situation that is so dire to your own citizen. To me – it is a mark of ARROGANCE without EMPATHY. It is LEADERSHIP without inner truth and conscience. A complete fake.” ( John Brian Anthony 6th March 2009)

Sarawak has an enviable record in poverty reduction. A poverty incidence of nearly 60% of households in 1976 had been reduced to 8% by 2004. From a condition much worse than the country average, Sarawak is now only a couple of percentage points above it (Table 1).

Table 1: Poverty in states with the highest rates, Malaysia 2004

However, despite this achievement, Sarawak remains in the bottom half of a ranking of states by incidence of poverty, having slipped behind two more states (Kedah and Perlis) since 2002. In Sarawak, poverty is largely a rural phenomenon. In 2004, the rural poor accounted for 90% of the state’s poor households and for 98% of hardcore poor households. Most of this rural poverty is associated with families working in agriculture. In that same year, these households accounted for two-thirds of all poor households in the state, and for 70% of the hardcore poor households.

The occurrence of poverty also varies significantly by ethnic group (Table 2). With an incidence of around 17%, Bidayuhs and Other Bumiputera account for nearly 32% of poor households although they comprise only 15% of the total. Ibans, Malays and Melanaus, each with an estimated incidence of around 9%, account for nearly 62% of the poor households but comprise just 56% of all households. Chinese comprise the largest number of households but have the lowest incidence of household poverty. Ibans and Bidayuhs accounted for the large majority of hardcore poor. Whilst the poor are overwhelmingly rural, they also tend to be predominantly smallscale agriculture-dependent communities that are generally the least educated, and commonly average a family size above the national norm. In addition to financial hardship, the poor face many challenges including securing land rights and other basic rights to development. Many of these indigenous communities have low levels of human capital, lack ready access to basic amenities and facilities, and because the physical infrastructure is underdeveloped in the areas where they live, they remain poorly connected to markets. They seem to be locked into an unrelenting intergenerational cycle of poverty, and require outside assistance to break free (Leete, 2007).

Table 2. Sarawak poverty rates by ethnic group, 2004
Ethnic group Incidence of Share of state’s Share of poor
poverty (%) households (%) households (%)
Other Bumiputera 17.2 4.5 9.7
Bidayuhs 16.6 10.6 21.9
Malays 9.0 21.1 23.7
Ibans 8.9 28.0 31.1
Melanaus 8.3 6.7 6.9
Chinese 1.9 28.4 6.7

Reference
Khoo Khay Jin (2007) Poverty, Inequality and Welfare in Sarawak: Study to Identify Strategies and Programmes to Eradicate Poverty and Improve Employment and Equity Restructuring in Sabah and Sarawak, UNDP Malaysia, unpublished.

Leete, R (2007) Malaysia: from Kampung to Twin Towers: 50 Years of Economic and Social Development, Oxford Fajar, Shah Alam, Malaysia.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Dayak Leaders denying poverty among Dayak Posted by: Agom Dayak Leaders are denying Dayak poverty existence...
Land without development is a poverty trap? Posted by Dyaks Taib said ” Land without development is...
Some Dayak has turned into beggers in Miri Posted by: Banting Thank you? Only a wise man will...
Dayak Penan are starving – are we surprise? Written by: Dr. John Brian Anthony Starvation Just look at...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

March 6, 2009 · Filed Under General

Comments

18 Responses to “The Incidence of Dayak Poverty”

Tiyung Dayak on March 6th, 2009 7:51 pm

No wonder… that the so called senior Dayak Minister is afraid of this kind of facts and figures… Heh!

Could you or someone out there rearrange the tables into a standard format, please?

Good work done, doc!
Seliong ak Wau on March 6th, 2009 8:22 pm

It interesting today’ Star page 6 – beside the Lubuk Antu election story, they have a picture of Ibans – enti oleh bantai ke ditu with the caption: “46 years of independence.”

Admin: Maybe download it here, after all the snoops are watching us too.
rentap on March 6th, 2009 8:39 pm

I cant read the table properly. need reformated
Can we see dayak education achievement as well. compare and show why dayak is still (far behind)
Akiq Hawong on March 6th, 2009 8:44 pm

apoooo…amat very far behind nya baka ke ditulis nuan ditu nya Akih Hentap.
Superkepayang on March 6th, 2009 8:55 pm

Rilek ler rentap.. just give them time to do it…

If you are dayak, that reflect to you too. Anang ngano orang, manah nuan ngajar enti nuan nemu.

Rentap baka apai iya Jabooon
Anderson melintang on March 6th, 2009 8:56 pm

To Dr Alex, the Texas man,
I guessed the poverty is not your subject or your authority, and neither do I. But it is was a pleasure to have collaborate with you when both of us once the consultant of the UNDP project last few years.

The greatest blunder you committed in this paper is that you failed to show what is the poverty line of minimum level of income when you considered people is under poverty (poor). Is it Tr Melintang in Entawau, Balleh with monthly income RM450/month is considered poor when compared to John Entalai working in Kapit when they earned the same amount of income. I presumed Tr Melintang is better off than John, because in Entawau, the jungle vegetables, fish and wild lives are readily available. Just cast your fishing net in river or shoot your gun in the jungle.

Mr John who is residing in Kapit is confronting with rocket high price of food and other domestic items. Mr John probably cant meet the need for the month end. This is considered under poverty. Therefore it means the poverty line of minimum income varied between Entawau and Kapit, and also from place to place.

Without first formulate the poverty line minimum income, your claim on the occurrence, incidence or rate on distribution, is not properly quantified and verified. Please Texas man, don’t you realized that longhouse and kampong people never declared their income, neither they know the existence of Inland Revenue Department, Then how do you know they are poor and no money. My friend Mr Pesaka Bumi from Balingan who claimed to own 1000 acres of land is considered poor because this guy never go to Inland revenue.

Nya aja, pedis pala ninga penemu bakih agi bedau mansau.
Akiq Hawong on March 6th, 2009 9:15 pm

Au ga unggal AM. Amat endar ga utai ku nuan nya. Sapa sapa urang ke enda kala mayar chukai agai IRB nya endang amat amat mensia ke pemadu kah miskin papa kedana mensia laban nadai gaji deka dideclare neh. Tang mayuh ga sida nya driba moto pantai lebih manah ari enggi tua. Apooo….pandai endar meh sida nya lari ari Income Tax Board neh. Ila aku ngehepot sida agai bakih aku ke gawa dia ila unggal. Jera sepi asai sida iya bangat tak landik endar ngehakal tua.
rentap on March 6th, 2009 11:29 pm

46 year of merdeka still no api air. tapi nama batang ai. how to relek, makin relek jauh tingal belakannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng
Iban Abroad. on March 7th, 2009 4:00 am

Mr Alex,

I don’t believe yr statistic Dayak is 8 % poor, it is far from that. Once again we Dayak being cheated. The reality the Dayak poverty is more than 20%. Why?

Every time, few weeks before census of Dayak poverty, Taib and umnoputra incraese the Dayak income by increase the price of Lada and Getah. Lada price increase from 5RM to 15RM and getah from 2RM to 7RM. During this time Dayak income very hight and when the census come the Dayak pocket is temporarily full. a week after the sensus the price of Ladah and Getah was come back to normal price.

Now I expected that, you know why Taib and umnoputra do this. They want to cheating the sensus and change the rate of Dayak poor from reality (23%) to taib and umno statistic, (8%).

From Taib&umno statistic the whole world will see the Dayak in sarawak are not poor or better live than other races and yaerly budget for Dayak also can be reduced.

I hope we will not be fool again.
Miss Kepayang on March 7th, 2009 9:19 am

Hai everybody, a very good morning to Bloogers & Blog readers.

A very interesting piece of intelligence information which I would like to share with you guys.
Is this what you are looking for ?

The formation of “Unity Government” is in the offing. Is this a form devine intervention ? Ku Li & PR leaders met until the wee hours trying to tie up the loose end. Ku Li would be bringing in 26 UMNO MPs to join Pakatan.
However still short of 6 to form the legitimate Unity Government. The group is sending feelers to meet Mawan & Masing inorder to close the deal.As part of the deal Ku Li will be made PM for three years, until the next GE. Interestingly the Unity Government agree to appoint Dayak as Sarawak CM and Kadazaan as CM of Sabah. If the deal is sealed before 30/3, the Batang Ai by-election become irrelevant. Stay atune for any ney development.
orangluar on March 7th, 2009 11:01 am

Miss kepayang your comments sounds interesting but very unlikely. If true then very good. I hope you are not trying to divert attention from vBatang Ai.
Sarawak, Ooops! Tanah Air Ku… « Tiyung Dayak - “The Sour Dayak Apple” in Bidayuh Politics on March 7th, 2009 6:54 pm

[...] had the opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas on a variety of issues but most of the time [...]The Incidence of Dayak Poverty March 6, 2009Posted by Alex S “The BN government continue to deny the serious poverty [...]
Tiyung Dayak on March 7th, 2009 7:00 pm

I just want to know: Is there a place called “Sungai Po” really exist in Batang Ai? Check this out: http://tiyungdayak.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/sarawak-tanah-air-ku/
Lintong on March 7th, 2009 9:55 pm

I was very thrilled by some comments as I was surfing through the comments made in the Dayak Baru Weblog covering the BA By-election.

ENDU’s comment made me laughed,I hope she will marry a decent Iban husband one day.I believe that those Iban men she had known to have married Chinese wives were due to what we can say as FATED.

Bujang Skrang Baru & Wong Irup are strongly behind BN.I believe there is nothing much I can say about to them ,this is a democratic process.They might have made up their minds.

Being a Dayak ,my longhouse is in Betong,and I do not have to be from LA/BA to tell all the other voters that the Hydro which was in the early days our PRIDE ,being in Second Division.Then it belonged to the government of Sarawak.Maybe in this conjunction, I need the help of Bujang Skrang Baru and Wong Irup to tell the voters in BA WHO owns the first Hydro Plants ,its operation ,its profits NOW. I hope they will help to explain why the BA people are not co-owners/share holders and benefactors of $$$$$$$$$$ earned from the memmoth project operating from their backyard.

If by any chance BSB and WI can percieve how our brothers in BA are being left out may be they would participate to bring the CHANGE we hope for BA in particular and to the whole DAYAK people in general.My best wishes to all supporters of PR/PKR in Batang Ai
Akiq Hawong on March 7th, 2009 10:35 pm

I feel that saying those who do not pay taxes can be considered as poor. But then, we all pay tax direct or indirect mean unless we buy smuggled goods only for one’s daily need. The IRB has set the income per head that is qualified to be taxed. Those who earn RM2,000.00 and less may not be taxed. So, do I sound too harsh to classify someone being poor because one does not pay tax? RM2,000 is a lot and one can easily own a T. Vios with that income. There are many people who earn much more but can evade tax anytime or without being detected. The government servants cannot hide their income; therefore, it’s impossible for them to evade tax but some private do by smart means to reduce their tax as much as they can.
Akiq Hawong on March 8th, 2009 9:12 am

People are poor because they are lack of technological know-how or simply lazy to improve their life. There are many works that they can do to earn a living. They can rear kampung pigs, chicken, ducks then they can plant maize/corn, tapioca, and look for wild grass to feed their animals which do not need money to get them from the wild. While waiting for the animals growing, they can start to plant rubber, fruit trees, vegetable, garu tree, spice plants, pepper, vanilla. Every human has their own skill over something. Why not explore and make full use of the skill. Of course, the skill of being lazy is so easy to acquire. If they don’t plan for the future from today, their generation will continue being poor in future. We cannot hope too much for government to spoon-feed but we can ask it to make certain infrastructure available to market the products. For the kampung that has a nice river, they can ask the government to provide them with fries of ikan lampan jawa, semah, empurau, and then practice the system tagang until the river is over-crowded with fish. There is always a source of food in the kampung as long as the people are hardworking. The maize, tapioca, yam, changkok manis cannot plant by themselves unles we move our legs and hands.
iban samarahan on March 8th, 2009 11:56 am

this happened because our DAYAK YB and the future DAYAK YB is not fighting for us..but for their own interest…

I still doubt that those DAYAK YB frm so call PAKATAN RAKYAT will have the voice out as well..? Of coz thr are DOCTORS, PHD holders but in term of MONEY? Are you have that resoources to help IBAN DAYAK..or you make their life more DIFFICULT after this?

MONEY come first in anything…example..LIM KIT SIANG, KARPAL SINGH and sons..are very outspoken because jadi MP or YB is not their PERIUK NASI. They hv their own business…..which can feed their family….

But how about our YB? JAdi YB is their PERIUK NASI..thats why they are PENAKUT.
Lintong on March 18th, 2009 10:55 pm

Amat endar jako nuan nya Iban Samarahan.Enti YB nya dalam sengkilong ular dini deh iya ulih ngiga
penatai belanja kena iya bejalai ngabas bala rakyat.
Nya alai sekali tu awak kitai tau ngerari diri ari ULAR nya.Laban enti kitai milih pengari ari perintah ti bekuasa reti nya nganjong diri ngagai sengkilong nya baru.
Laban seagi-agi kitai ngundi BN bala kitai nadai awak diberi enggau orang ngereja pengawa dagang ti
tau meri penatai pemisi.Kitai bansa ngelama udah disengaja ditinggal orang ti bekuasa.
Arap ke bala kitai sama mereti pekara tu.