KOTA KINABALU: As of late, many issues have cropped up in the media, namely the 600 to 700 thousand hectares of Yayasan Sabah land that have allegedly gone missing and given to a few selected individuals by the previous government. Please take note of the following clarification:
JAWALA PLANTATIONS
1. First and foremost, I wish to point out that Tan Sri Musa Aman is not the owner of Jawala. Never has been. It is also not owned by his family. He is not related to Tan Sri Majid Khan.
2. I thought Datuk Rahman Dahlan’s earlier statement would have been sufficient and clear but apparently not.
3. The FMU system for long term forest management was introduced in 1997 and as a start, it was given to 10 licences with Yayasan Sabah being the biggest licence. This all added up to 2 million hectares approximately.
4. However, it was found out that apart from Yayasan Sabah, no allocation was made to native companies per se.
5. Jawala Plantation applied for about 10,000 hectares in Mt Mandalom Forest Reserve (Keningau) some years later for the purpose of growing rubber, setting up of a rubber factory and engaging local communities to participate in the project as they are known to be highly competent rubber planters. The company has a similar set up overseas.
6. However, Cabinet decided it was best to allocate the area directly to the communities and Yayasan Sabah for rubber planting etc. Community titles were then issued but Jawala’s application was turned down
7. The Cabinet then looked at certain FMUs in existence with the intension of re-allocating some and part of the areas for greater equity.
8. One FMU decided to surrender 11,000 hectares of their FMU back to the government for re-allocation.
9. Cabinet then decided to re-allocate these 11,000 hectares to Jawala, a company which fulfills the criteria for native participation, for tree planting, including rubber.
10. Mills will be set up for this purpose, which will create many jobs and Native participation can be fulfilled, which was left out before.
HUTAN KITA/AMIN KHAN
1. Yayasan Sabah was supposed to allocate a certain volume of logs for sales to Hutan Kita in 1999 but failed to deliver, thus breaching the contract. They were going to be sued for at least RM50m by Hutan Kita for losses incurred. The previous government had nothing to do with the breach or allocation.
2. Some eight years ago or so, Yayasan Sabah proposed that they establish an oil-palm plantation on a logged over area of about 7,000 hectares, with the Royal Society of London at Kalabakan. This project is an ecological project and that is supposed to be the biggest such experiment in the world called “Safe” – stability of altered, forest ecosystems”. This was to be the “compensation” for the breach of the contract on Yayasan Sabah’s part. Hutan Kita was supposed to absorb the development cost.
3. This was agreed by all concerned and a signing ceremony involving the Royal Society of London, Yayasan Sabah and Forestry Department, was conducted in the presence of the PM then, at Maliau Basin.
4. The issue of timber does not arise. The area of 7,000 hectares have been logged by a licencee, NBT and other small licences since the 1960s. The oil palm development will be financed by Hutan Kita.
5. The area remains Yayasan Sabah’s and it cannot be sold off or given away. Amin Khan cannot own this Yayasan Sabah land.
6. The project has stalled since the last government for various reasons. It is now a weedy wasteland due to the stoppage. *ELBERT LIM* 1. There are two areas involved in Elbert Lim’s case: 2. The first area involves an FMU in Kalabakan that was allocated by the State Cabinet to Elbert for the purpose of replanting and forest management. The area has been logged over repeatedly from the 80s’ to the 90s’. It is not virgin forest and it is not within the Yayasan Sabah concession area. 3. The second are was awarded in the Yayasan Sabah area for replanting purposes and done on a joint venture basis with Yayasan Sabah. As such Elbert is merely a contractor and not owner of the area.-
Datuk Sam Mannan
Former Sabah Chief Conservator of Forests, Kota Kinabalu.
