TELLING LIES!......DEVELOPING OUR NCR LAND FOR GOOD RETURN?

Numbers Don't Lie

BY TEROPONG DUNYA AKI ANDAN
GENIUS DAYAK - DATUK IDRIS JALA

At the DCCI function that I attended last Friday, Malaysian Airline (MAS) managing director, Dato Seri Idris Jala in his speech said, "numbers don't lie". He was right with this age-old saying. Massive losses suffered by MAS prior to Idris' taking over as managing director were manifested in its profit and loss account. That was correct because numbers don't lie. Now that MAS has become a profitable concern is also correct because numbers never lie.
OUR BELOVED DAYAK LEADERS

As a single indigenous group, Dayak is the largest community in terms of numbers. As numbers don't lie, this is true. Among the Dayak, Iban has the biggest population. This is also true as numbers don't lie. Iban is also the biggest minority. By that I mean there is no single ethnic race in Sarawak is a majority, that is to say, no single ethnic race made up of more than 50% of the total population. And the Iban is the biggest of these minorities constituting slightly more than one-third of the total population of the state. This is a fact because numbers and figures don't lie. Going by numbers and figures, it is an irony but true, that the Iban are also the most marginalised single ethnic race in almost every aspect of socio-economic life.

Because numbers don't know how to tell a lie, it is so sad and painful to note that some political leaders continuously lie about the true socio-economic state of the Dayak. Dayak political leaders, and notably the Second Deputy Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi Alfred Jabu, has been telling the whole world that participants of native customary land development programme run by SALCA or by joint venture companies have been making tons of money. The recently released figures on amount of dividend to be distributed among the participants have given us an amazing discovery. The total amount of dividend divided by the total number of participants showed that each participant received LESS THAN ONE HUNDRED RINGGIT MALAYSIA per year. The amazing thing is that most of the participants are Iban. Again numbers don't lie.

Some months ago in his speech at one function in Miri attended mostly by a particular indigenous community, Alfred Jabu condemned the opposition for causing the Dayak to become regressive. He asserted that the opposition was depriving the Dayak of the benefit of the above-mentioned land development programme by instigating the Dayak not to particiapte in the venture. At the same function he insisted that venture was the best for the Dayak, who own large amount of NCR land.

From the above remark I would not be wrong to conclude that Alfred Jabu considers it would be a great loss to the Dayak if the Dayak were to be deprived of such an income. In other words somebody who tells the Dayak to reject such venture is doing great disservice to the Dayak people. Amazingly, the numbers, which never lie, speak to the contrary.

Is it really a big loss to forego an income of LESS THAN ONE HUNDRED RINGGIT per year? I once worked as a general labourer at an oil platform off the coast of Sarawak. My daily routine, together with tens of other general labourers, was painting the rusty parts of the platform. For that job I earned RM25.00 per day. With an average of 20 working days I earned RM500 per month. In a year I earned RM6000 from that job. Since numbers don't lie I earned 600 times more than that was earned by a participant of that land programme in any given financial year. And the beauty is, I did not lose my right to use my NCR land for a single day. The above-mentioned paticipants, on the other hand, are deprived of using their land for 60 years!

Since numbers don't lie I am more than willing to forego the LESS THAN RM100 per year income. Alfred Jabu can say that I am deprived of the benefit of such NCR land development programme. I don't mind because as Dato Seri Idris Jala had said, "numbers don't lie". The real liar is one who says that black is white and continously asking others to believe in what he says. And when others disagree with him he labels them as bad heads .

** DCCI stands for Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It's president is Tan Sri Datuk Amar Leo Moggie.

** NCR stands for Native Customary Right

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