SMA and Telco license - Approved Already Or Not?

 SMA and Telco license - Approved Already Or Not?

 

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sarawak, it became immediately apparent to all stakeholders - parents, students, educators, that the inability of schools to continue with face-to-face teaching will take a big toll on students and teachers alike. It also became apparent that our education system and the Sarawak government were completely unprepared and without the capability to effectively deal with the devastating effects of COVID-19 on the education of our children. It was not just the classroom lessons that had to be suspended but year-end major examinations in 2020 had to be postponed. Students who had register to start their primary one education in 2020 have not been able to be fully acquainted with their teachers and classmates until today. Students who entered primary one this year are in the same predicament.

 

Online learning and teaching was the obvious solution to education during the pandemic but the education system, families and the government were and still are ill-equipped for online teaching. Rural schools and rural students, particularly students from B40 families were the hardest hit. For rural schools, it was not just the problems with dilapidated school buildings and facilities but also the near total absence of internet connectivity. Coupled with the B40 families inability to afford computers and smart phones, the situation for many rural communities and families were really ground zero as far as education is concerned. There news reports about teachers, students and parents desperately combing jungles and hills to look for spots with good internet connectivity so that students can proceed with their studies.

:CM Abang Johari, please tell us where we are now on this issue.

https://www.theborneopost.com/2020/11/18/teacher-takes-students-parents-on-two-hour-jungle-trek-for-internet-in-lubok-antu/

There was a collective sigh of relief from Sarawakians when in mid-May 2020 CM Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari announced that the MCMC had agreed to grant Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) a telco license to enable the Sarawak GPS government to provide internet services to the rural areas. He said he met the minister in charge of the MCMC and he (the minister) had agreed to grant Sarawak the license. The last time Abang Johari spoke on this matter was on the 20th Nov 2020. He said the government was working to set up a telco company within the next 2 years so as to be able to provide internet services to the rural areas of sarawak.

https://www.newsarawaktribune.com.my/sma-to-operate-rural-internet-services/

https://themalaysianreserve.com/2020/11/20/sarawak-plans-to-have-its-own-telco-in-two-years-time/

On the 24th Nov 2020, Cikgu Macky Joseph, President of the Sarawak Teachers Union issued a timely reminder, urging the authorities to make sure high-speed internet is easily accessible throughout the state as e-learning or online classes has become the new normal in education.

In a media statement carried by an online news portal he said, ‘ We must provide free internet access to enable all students, both rural and urban, to attend online classes as no child should be left behind in their education’.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/11/24/rural-children-will-fall-behind-without-internet-say-sarawak-groups/

It is now about 7 months since Abang Johari first mentioned the telco license and spoke about wanting to provide internet services to the rural areas. Sarawakian students are now 2 months into the new academic year 2021. Stakeholders in the education system in Sarawak - students, teachers and parents are anxiously waiting news about the latest developments on the telco license and the telco company that will provide internet services to the rural areas. The future of the students is critical to their families and to Sarawak. Face-to-face teaching is still an uncertain thing for now as the national COVID.19 vaccination plans does not include people below the age of 18 years. To further compound the problem, the date for the vaccination of able bodied people which group logically include all teachers has not been revealed. While the Sarawak government plans to complete its vaccination programme by august 2021, the uncertainty caused by the lack of clarity in the national vaccination plan brings no comfort to Sarawakians.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/10/sarawak-aims-to-complete-covid-19-vaccination-by-august-five-months-ahead-o/1948718

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/16/pm-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-to-arrive-on-feb-21-ahead-of-schedule/1950076

With this in mind, it will bring great relief and comfort to all the stakeholders in the education system in Sarawak if CM Abang Johari can give updates on what has transpired after the he last spoke on the matter in Nov 2020. Top leaders of the GPS government like DCM Tan Sri James Masing vehemently objected when Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) voluntarily installed broadband services in 5 rural schools in Kapit in order to bring relief to the teachers and students in those schools but he could not present a viable alternative.

https://www.newsarawaktribune.com.my/installation-of-broadband-services-in-schools-needs-permission/

CM Abang Johari, please tell us where we are now on this issue.

Logging & Planted Forest In Kapit Area (English)

 Logging & Planted Forest In Kapit Area

On the 6th Feb 2021, the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (SADIA) issued a statement, pleading to timber companies who are holders of License For Planted (LPF) Forest to be more responsible to NCR land owners whose customary rights land are part of the area covered by their LPF. SADIA made specific reference to areas within the Kapit division.

SADIA was also specific about how the these LPF timber companies must demonstrate responsibility to the affected NCR landowners, namely by paying rental to NCR land owners whose land are wrongfully included in the license and subsequently encroached upon and planted with oil palm. In the same statement SADIA reminded the LPF timber companies to be extra careful about encroaching into dayak’s NCR land. This reminder is quite puzzling as it seems to be misdirected. That reminder should instead be directed to the Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources, the person primarily in charge of issuing logging licenses. That minister for the time being is Awang Tengah Ali Hassan who incidentally is also one of the three deputy chief minister (DCM) of Sarawak. https://www.theborneopost.com/2021/02/06/sadia-concerned-about-ncr-land-encroachment/

The timber logging industry and the subsequent oil palm industry have been the bane of the dayak communities throughout Sarawak since the time the first tree was felled under the first logging license issued in Sarawak.

The issuance of licenses for timber logging or for timber harvesting by the Sarawak GPS government, previously the Sarawak chapter of the Barisan Nasional (BN), is shrouded in secrecy and until today information on how many of such licenses have been issued, the total acreage involved, how big the areas that have been completely logged remain a mystery to most Sarawakians. The dayaks who are adversely affected by the primary logging industry and the subsequent planted forest industry only become aware of their predicament when machines and men unknown to them moved into their NCR land to plant oil palm. Before that their knowledge of the adverse effects of logging industry on their life was limited to damages to their water source and diminishing natural bounties from the rivers and forests. A dayak minister who is now a deputy chief minister once rightly referred to the forests and rivers as the supermarket of the rural based dayaks and orang ulu.

http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/11/28/folly-to-rush-change-for-penans/

In  Jan 2015 Sarawakians were given a glimpse of how many logging or timber harvesting licenses have been given out by the GPS government by the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem when he was CM of Sarawak: 572 licenses in total and out of that are 155 Occupation Ticket (OT) licenses. Included in the 572 licenses  too are some very big Belian Timber License. https://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/01/21/Sarawak-CM-plans-to-halve-number-of-OT-licences/

The OT are the licenses that allows a LPF timber company to plant oil palm on plantation scale.

In the Kapit division, as SADIA rightly pointed out, there are 11 LPF companies. Each of the LPF has a 60 years lease. Based on SADIA’s statement, between the 11 LPFs in Kapit division they controlled some 1 million hectares of land. The bulk of the land are controlled by families of 2 prominent and very powerful GPS dayak leaders who hailed from the area. SADIA is right when they said the dayaks affected by the LPFs are powerless to defend their NCR land and are at the mercy of these LPF timber companies.

https://forestry.sarawak.gov.my/page-0-486-1009-Progress-of-Planting.html

The story of the logging and oil palm industry in the Kapit area is really a tragic tale of betrayal of the rakyat by leaders who they have elected to some of the highest offices in the government to fight for their interests and their rights.

How did the misfortune that first befall the rural dayak and orang ulu communities at the issuance of the logging license continue to the issuance of the OTs and the consequential large scale planting of oil palm, almost always by the owners of the logging licenses and for the same area or locality?

That privilege is given to them via clause 26 of schedule exhibited in the Forests(Planted Forests) Rules, 1997 . By that clause investors are allowed to cultivate 20% of the licence area for a cash crop, namely, oil palm for one cycle of 25 years to allow the investor to reap revenue in a shorter period. Invariably the investor given the OT over the area is the same company that had earlier logged there. For the investor i.e the LPF company, it really is like having rights to a gold mine where the mother lode self regenerate. In hokkien, I belief this good fortune is described as chiek beh liau.

What are the dayak and the orang ulu communities to do? Surely they cannot just stand aside and pray that the government leaders and their backers in the timber and in the oil palm plantation industry will feel compassion for them in their oppressed state? That would just go to vindicate CM Abang Johari and proved that what he said in a video clip that when viral on socmed on the 2nd Feb 2021 was right.

https://www.facebook.com/100002474958275/videos/3697854240307038/

The one thing that the dayak and orang ulu communities should probably do first is to recognise that the source of their sufferings and predicament is to be found primarily in the policies of the GPS state government. It is also to be found in the greed and callousness of their own leaders in the GPS government. It is hard to believe that there are 2 dayaks DCM in the GPS government and yet the vast majority of rural-based dayaks and orang ulu are mired in poverty, unable to monetise what is left of their NCR land. It is completely unpalatable that some of their own top leaders are the very people who are left them downtrodden by their greed.

"It is hard to believe that there are 2 dayaks DCM in the GPS government and yet the vast majority of rural-based dayaks and orang ulu are mired in poverty, unable to monetise what is left of their NCR land. It is completely unpalatable that some of their own top leaders are the very people who are left them downtrodden by their greed"

The message to the dayak and to the orang ulu community is therefore this: The GPS government has proven itself to be an uncaring government, without a care for you and your future generations. To the top leaders, you are a people without brain to think. There is only one thing left for the dayaks and the orang ulu to do : Reject GPS in the coming PRN. Give yourself a chance for a better future with a new government.