NCR Land JV is NOT transparent to Dayak
Posted by Maramat Tajak
semugah on June 26th, 2009 2:40 am wrote:
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Another JV will be sign on July 9 2009 with Sime Darby for Julau NCR (37,000 ha)
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With whom is the JV going to be signed ? Were the NCR land owners informed through letters, of the proposed JV – including all its Terms and Conditions ? How was it decided that Sime Darby got the rights to the 37K hectare of land ? Heck, how many NCR land owners are affected ?
In the first instance, since the NCR land owners were prevented by State Land Law to survey and obtain land title, the signee to the so-call JV will be the chosen few, supporters of BN including Tuai Rumahs, Councillors, Penghulu and regular crooks looking for kantau – who will be feted by Pelita and Sime Darby officers.
How can there be a contract between Sime Darby and Pelita,and the NCR land owners, if the law does not explicitly recognised the NCR land owners as rightful and legal owner of the property, as a priori ?
So,the expression -daylight robbery- is most appropriate given:-
1) The law prevented the true NCR land owners from obtaining their land title
2) Instead, land title is promised, if the land owners surrender the land for NCR land development
3) Whoever sign the JV on behalf of each of the NCR land owner, is misrepresenting themselves
4) No informed consent had been obtained from each and every NCR land owner – instead, coercion were used
5) The property were arbitrarily assigned to a 3rd party to developed, without the true owner participation in the selection process
semugah on June 26th, 2009 2:40 am wrote:
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Only 40 landowners with a land size of 348ha did a blockade out of 1,701 landowners and 14,000ha planted area. How many percent is that? This 40 landowners also received their dividend on 25th May 2009 and info on the ground said that most of them are going stop the blockade.
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The relatively few opposition to the ill gotten contract, does not represent the truth.
The poor and many uneducated rural NCR land owners, often resign to their fate since they can’t afford to obtain legal counsel.Very few lawyers would be willing to take up NCR Land cases, perhaps the payout is minimal, but most likely – because of fear of reprisals.
Even who do agree wholeheartedly, often does not know the true terms of the contract – but because of acute poverty – will happily accept whatever the JV is willing to pay out. Does this make the NCR development scheme right ? No, I call that – taking advantage: predatory government.
Pelita supposedly looked after the interest of the NCR land owners, but since the holding company is not strictly a government agency, its not clear if its mission is as kosher/halal.
semugah on June 26th, 2009 2:40 am wrote
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What about the amount of millions of ringgit paid to project participants all these years through their cash upfront(RM120/ha), Unit trust investment(RM360/ha + 5 years interest),wages for those who work in the plantation? Who will bring and how this millions of ringgit could comes to Kanowit if not through this NCR project? What other better alternative could help generate this amount of money for Kanowit populace?
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CharcoalArt has said it best.
But I also want to know how was the payout derived from the JV business plan ? Why was the payout appear to be released at the sole discretion of Pelita and the company. Whats the basis for the amount ? Is the business plan, and the scheduled payout consistent for all “Konsep Baru” JVs ?
Semugah, your posting is good – better than typical rants of BN cheerleaders. But the deep chasm between my views and yours – remain. In my view it is simple :
NCR Land titles must be issued first before any JV proposal and commercial negotiation.
Remove/repeal/amend the State Land code thatrefuse to allow land owner to survey their own land and obtain land title. Subsequently, the JV startup has to be conducted with full transparency (because the 60 year contract is a matter of pubic interest) and with due protection of the law provided to the NCR Land owners.
Informed consent, no coercion, transparent contract/agreement, fully audited account,issuance of dividends following rules like any public-listed companies,competitive bid for blocks of NCR land … is not too much to ask for especially from the “benevolent” BN ?
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Inspirational word from gkm2020
KUALA LUMPUR: Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, mengumumkan pelabur asing kini boleh memiliki hartanah milik Bumiputera atau kerajaan di Malaysia dengan mudah tanpa perlu kelulusan Jawatankuasa Pelabur Asing (FIC).
Transaksi ini hanya membabitkan hartanah bernilai RM20 juta dan ke bawah saja, manakala bagi RM20 juta ke atas kelulusan daripada FIC diperlukan.
Beliau berkata demikian pada Persidangan Invest Malaysia 2009 di sini, hari ini.
The Borneo Post today reported some 190 Tuai Rumah were receptive to the Pelita/Sime Darby JV and Wong Judat, the independent ADUN was pleased. This posting is to point out some facts on the ground, which incidentally – unggal Semugah, had also failed to highlight /refute earlier.
1. Even before JV agreement is signed, a trusted source told me, a logging company had been allowed by the authority to log the designated area. There is nothing left in the area – 60K hectares of NCR had been logged.Some of the area is not primary forest, but was planted with Durians and other fruit trees. I had asked why nobody claims – the usual reply was that, what can you do, if the Tuai Rumahs and the Penghulus had already signed away the whole area. Since the area is far from roads and Julau river itself, I was told, people are scared to go out there and find out what happens to their NCR land.
2. It looks like the briefing was attended by Tuai Rumahs and Penghulus only. A source also told me, there were no pamphlets, that would show if their land would be bulldozed for the Pelita/Sime Darby oil palm plantation. Instead, as the Borneo Post report, the Tuai Rumahs – who reputedly had already agreed – would be asked to cascade the details of the JV to the anembiak/charges. So, the cascading- for some Tuai Rumahs – could be an arm twisting/influencing session : as some of them would be a soft target by the JVs.
3. Where is the Memorandum of Consent, and how would it be distributed to the land owners, remains to be seen. Given point 2, will individual landowners really understand the terms of the JV ? I’m sure many would express apprehension – but are too afraid to stand up for their rights. Many more simply have no idea of their rights. Shouldn’t it be the government responsibility to clearly spell out the rights and the terms of the JV, so it would be a case of truly “informed consent” and not a rape and robbery ?
Most striking is how the authorities (Forestry Dept, Local Government and the Ministry of Natural Resource) could have allowed the area to be logged – even before the JV agreement was finalised ?
Can anyone stand and watch this happens, and not be angry at the injustice, perpetrated in real-time ? If it happens in Julau, it must have happened elsewhere, and will continue to happen again …unless the responsible party(ies) is not held to account.
Semugah,
It seems you have some knowledge on the NEW CONCEPT of Development in Sarawak, particularly on NCR land.
I sincerely hope that you could give a word or two concerning several important issues development on NCR so that t folks would not be deceived by these PL holders.
Cikgu Iban,
Thank you very much for the suggestion!
Lets make it very-very clear that under the New Concept of NCR Land Development…NO LAND IS ALLOWED TO BE DEVELOP WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE NCR OWNER!
Once the JVA is signed, there will be a house to house dialogue to explain the concept to the NCR Owners so that they can understand the concept and later to decide whether they want to surrender their land to be develop under the concept.
Then Memorandum Of Consent (MOC) Forms will be distributed to those who agreed to surrender their land for the project.
Later the NCR owners will be asked to rentice their own land together with their neighbours. Only then the surrendered land will be surveyed.
After the size and boundries of the land being determined, only then the JVC can clear the said surrendered parcel of land for development.
Under the new concept, the NCR owners is NOT force to surrender their land. The NCR owners were even advise NOT to surrender all their NCR land even if they want to.
The Letter of Idemnity (LOI) will be signed by each of the project participants for every parcels of land surrendered for the project upon receiving their RM120/ha upfront payment.
There shouldn’t be any problem between the JV company and NCR owners under this New NCR Concept.
To be clear..the NCR land problem arises because of other JV concept but NOT this NEW CONCEPT!
Please feel free to attend NCR longhouse to longhose dialogues if it is organised in your village.
Thank you..!
Semugah,
Could you elaborate more on the equity repayment by the NCR landowners under this NEW CONCEPT of Land Delopment?. As far as know, the government under this NEW CONCEPT has pre-determined and fixed the net return of RM1200.00 per hectare.
Out of this amount, 60% of it ( RM1200.00x 60%) ie RM720.00 will be credited as repayment towards the 30% of shareholding of NCR landowners in the JVC. Here, I want to know,how many years do these NCR landowners need to pay for their shares of 30% in this JVC Is it 15 years or 13 years?. When does this JVC start to pay the amount of RM1200.00 per hectare?. Is it after the third year onwards under normal period of cultivation?.
And another 40% (RM1200.00 x 40%) will be paid as an interim dividends paid by the JVC to the landowners through government agents such as,SALCRA,FELCRA LCDA,etc.
The agent in return will invest RM360.00 into an Unit Trust company authorised by the gvernment.My question here, who is going to look after the interest of the NCR landowners whena huge chunk o 30% of their returns is invested in the UnitTrust?. Again , I want to kow for how long must they keep theirmoies in this Unit Trust company?. I feel a well qualified representative of NCR landowners MUST be there to do so.
And ONLY RM120.00 will be paid cash to the NCR landowners. This is as far as I could understand.
If I may ask, I would like you to confirm if the predetermined amount of RM1200.00 per hectare is per year or per month?.
What about payment of cash o RM120.00?. May I also know which JVC could manage to do so and in which place?
Who among the NCR landowners,have really reaped the benefits brought about this JVC?. Any instant millionaires among them?.
At the moment, I feel too bad as I could only generalise that this NEW Concept has not actually given any significant outcome on our poor NCR Landowners. However, I am quite supportive of this NEW CONCEPT if there is EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION of government standards. I want to see some kind of transparency in the JVC especially on NCR lands.
Thanks…..
I have participated in Sime Darby/Pelita dialogs either in Dewan Masyarakat Julau or at my own longhouse in Julau. Their presentations have not convinced me that this konsep baru is going to be successful. Too many uncertainties were detected; no guarantee that the lands will be returned after expiry of 60 yrs, no guarantee that the lands will not be used to settle debts if JV closes shop, their version of land ‘title’ is not from the Dept of Lands and Survey and not fool-proof, no guarantee that their record books are not doctored to ensure dividends will never be paid, etc, etc, etc.
The companies who want to export palm oil are required to get RSPO certification. Even here, the companies try to circumvent the 8 principles and cheat the system. However, I don’t think they can get away with that for long. Landowners and RSPO-member NGOs will sooner rather than later discover these irregularities and cause the companies’ certification to be retracted.
We, the NCR landowners will make sure they FULLY comply with RSPO requirements. Once they do, we may then be satisfied.