Little men, big industry

Working with a social enterprise that interacts mainly with oil palm plantations, I had an opportunity to step into a plantation in Bintulu, Sarawak.

It was to conduct focus group interviews with smallholders who supply fresh fruit bunches to a nearby oil palm factory preparing for a Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil sustainability audit.

My day-to-day job usually requires me to stay in the office, or even at home, since as an editorial and communications coordinator, my only working tool is my laptop.

But with a background in anthropology, my superior decided to have me, and my colleague Ying along on this trip which took place in December last year.

He was in charge of health and safety guidelines and another associate looked into the environmental aspects while we visited the longhouses to meet with the independent planters.

The ‘real’ longhouses looked nothing like the ones at the Sarawak Cultural Village in Kuching. For one, they seemed ‘vacant’. A lot of the younger Ibans had moved to town for work while the children were sent off to boarding schools because the longhouses were too far from the schools.

The elders usually go out into their fields in the morning and only return in the afternoon. Nevertheless, we managed to conduct our interviews with a small group, of between 2-10 people, in eight different longhouses within close proximity of the oil palm factory.

The villagers plant crops such as paddy, vegetables and fruits for domestic consumption. For most of the smallholders, oil palm planting is their main source of income, especially for the ones who are already retired.

Prior to planting oil palm, several of the smallholders planted the well-known Sarawak pepper, famous for its distinct taste while others tapped rubber or worked in the logging area.

Because of limitations – pepper is a fragile vegetation prone to diseases and pests, rubber tapping is only feasible under good weather conditions, and logging is best doable when you’re young and able – these smallholders opted to cultivate oil palm because of its market value and high yields.

I discovered several issues – such as high cost of fertilisers, pesticides and seedlings – that are burdening the smallholders. But for most, the obscurity pertaining to their land rights proved to be the most worrisome.

Uncertainty over land rights hindering progress

According to one of the smallholders who is also a village chief, the government had only allowed 5ha of the villager’s land to be developed for oil palm.

The villagers claim to own hundreds of hectares of land which they’ve inhabited for centuries, but the boundary which separates the Native Customary Rights (NCR) land and state land is vague.

He claimed that the state government would not share a topographical map with the villagers which clearly demarcates these boundaries.This, he says, is a way to discourage villagers from developing oil palm and to keep the land free for corporations to develop the land.

The government would reap huge profits from selling the land to corporations rather than giving the villagers the opportunity in agriculture. He also hinted that the state government does not want the Ibans to succeed, and this is a form of discrimination.

Most of the smallholders I talked to expressed an interest in expanding their oil palm plantations, but this obscurity is hindering their plans.

Some smallholders who have planted outside of their 5ha boundary are worried that development will bulldoze their hard work and source of income at any time.

Mohd Naroden, assistant minister in the chief minister’s department said that many people did not understand the concept of developing NCR land, and explained that natives can develop the land in tandem with large companies.

I do not advocate the expansion of oil palm plantations since I recognise the negative environmental and social impacts the industry can have on our planet.

But after spending time with these villagers, I have to acknowledge that the industry has given them a steady source of income and provided better living conditions after the introduction of oil palm in their area.

The issue of land rights is pressing and is not alien to us; over here in Peninsular Malaysia land rights are an issue faced by the indigenous communities and in East Malaysia, it is an everyday court battle.

Whether my source’s claims are true or not, we must address this issue and find solutions to better protect indigenous land rights from exploitation and discrimination.

This article was published in Malaysiakini, January 26th 2010