KUCHING: Riled by the smug confidence displayed by Barisan Nasional leaders here recently, a newly empowered agrarian network of rural planters is set to “seriously puncture” Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s “Bumiputera vote bank".
Fuelled by the immense success of their three-year-old economic outreach project – Project Ekonomi Rakyat Sarawak (PERS) – the state-level network of farmers have boldly declared that they will contest in the next state election.
The project involves the cultivation of the Jatropha Curcas (oil plant) that saw hundreds of thousands of Sarawakians develop a sustainable income.
“We have been working with the rural community since 2008. We have shown them a sustainable income through our shared-plantation programme.
“We now have a one-million strong network. Many are now self-sufficient and earn between RM400 and RM500 a month.
“This is something the BN has not been able to do... even Pakatan Rakyat cannot achieve this,” Mohamad Noh Bakeri, the pro-tem secretary of the soon-to-be-registered Parti Ekonomi Rakyat Sarawak Bersatu (PERSB), told FMT.
Taking a swipe at Taib, Noh said the “shared-plantation” concept had helped pull many rural Bumiputeras out of the poverty cycle, which Taib alleged had kept them dependent on BN.
Billionaire Taib had last month shocked the nation when he admitted that Sarawak Bumiputeras were poor.
To add salt to wound, he had reportedly said: “Sarawak Bumiputeras know they are poor and in difficulty” and are “humble enough to recognise that they still depend on a working government for their fate".
On the heel of his painful revelation came a statement by State Land Development Minister James Masing who confidently declared that rural voters were “BN’s fixed deposit and would never vote for the opposition”.
To which, Noh sarcastically said: “It’s no more a fixed deposit… the situation is changing.”
Success and hope
Perusing the project website recently, FMT picked up a telling comment by a reader, Magdalene.
In her posting, she wrote: “I have done some background checks on PERS… It is hard to believe they have actually helped the poor in Sarawak for the past two years to uplift their economy.
“My own relatives planted Jatropha in Miri and are now making at least RM500 per month for two acres in less than eight months only. If they keep up this noble work, this is no doubt a
big hope for the people in Sarawak.”
Riding on this hope, Noh said these “sums of consistent money” were something many had not seen in more than 30 years under the BN regime.
Sarawak, like Sabah, shares the dubious honour of being the richest in natural resources but possesses the poorest populations.
In contrast, latest reports circulating in cyberspace have exposed Taib to be a millionaire many, many times over, with an extensive portfolio of properties abroad acquired purportedly on his RM20,000 a month salary.
This revelation, compounded with the simmering discontent over Native Customary Rights (NCR) land, deforestation and mega projects, which are displacing communities throughout the state, has lent weight to the emergence of new forms of opposition.
PERSB is not the first newbie to announce its bid to contest in the Sarawak state election.
Last month, another group announced the formation of the Peace Party led by grassroots leader Julian Petrus Jout.
Noh is unfazed
Despite its yet-to-be registered status and the fact that PERSB may not get the approval on time, an optimistic Noh said the “party is prepared for whatever outcome”.
“A lot of the candidates who will be contesting under the PERSB party label are former Parti Pesaka Bumiputera (PBB) members.”
‘We know the process…we know how they (government) work. Twice before, we had to re-submit our application because they found some fault... but we will not let this stop us.
“If they delay our approval or reject us, our people will stand as independents in all the constituencies and we are prepared for this.”
Apart from contesting in all the 71 state constituencies, PERSB is also expecting to field 31 candidates for the parliamentary polls in the 13th general election.
Already, several of the faces of the 71 candidates are available on the www. pers.com.my website.
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