Nothing for survey of NCR land, says Uggah
KUCHING: National Budget 2019, the first federal budget of the Pakatan Harapan government tabled by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday is very disappointing for Sarawak natives.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah said he had not seen nor listened to anything for Sarawak natives or specific programme for Sarawak farmers. “Nothing on survey of NCR lands, I don’t think any. We also don’t know if there is any mention about subsidy for rubber and pepper. I really don’t know why, it (the budget) is not very clear,” lamented Uggah, who is also Minister of Agriculture Modernisation, Native Land and Regional Development.
Uggah said to get a clearer picture of the allocation for Sarawak natives in 2018 and the allocation for 2019, it’s best to compare the two. He said he would to analyse the budget. Uggah added that he was frustrated by the generalisation of allocation for Sarawak, although Lim had said the allocation for Sarawak would be increased from RM4,336 million in 2018 to RM4,346 million in 2019.
“We are very disappointed that there is no clear direction on the support programme other than social safety net for rubber. Other than that, there is no clear programme, and subsidies for other crops (rubber, pepper, oil palm) unless we didn’t see it,” he said.
What hurt him the most, he said, was that there was nothing mentioned about Native Customary Rights ( NCR) land programme, which the previous government gave so much for perimeter survey works and land development programme for rural farmers in Sarawak.
“Nothing on land, which is very disappointing for the natives. Our farmers are very disappointed.
“Sarawak is only given a general fi gure ( RM4,346 million), which could mean only for Pan Borneo Highway,” Uggah added.
He believed the RM50 million allocation for rubber safety nets (for whole of Malaysia) would not be sufficient.
“At one time, we gave ‘ oneoff RM500 assistance’ to every smallholder, which cost us over RM30 million because we have about 75,000 smallholders in Sarawak. Orang Asli have, Chinese have, Indians have, but the natives of Sarawak and Sabah don’t have,” he said.