I WAS the first to wholeheartedly support our Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem when he said last year that we needed to accelerate the state’s economic growth by restructuring our economy to focus on creating high-income opportunities in new economic areas, rather than paying attention to marginal improvements in traditional sectors such as producing raw materials in the agriculture industry.

As such, I am quite bemused by his latest announcement at the opening of the 15th International Peat Congress this week that the state government had decided to open up coastal land and to consider peatland as the most strategic alternative resource due to dwindling arable land.

On one hand, we must welcome the policy’s objective to increase food production to cater to the increasing population and at the same time eradicate persistent poverty, particularly in the rural areas.

However, I think the policy is also to open up more land for oil palm cultivation as he went on to say: “The move to use peatland has contributed to the development of one of the fastest growing industries in Sarawak and a major contributor to the state’s total export value in 2015, about 10%.”

Adenan continued to assert that peatland was now an important resource for Sarawakians, especially rural farmers, who, after being involved in small-scale oil palm planting, are now generating income to elevate their living standard and support their children’s higher education.

It is claimed peatland research has also increased the state’s palm oil production. However, the industry claimed that it spent 30% of its costs on fertilisers.

The Chief Minister was also pleased that Sarawak had well exceeded the national commitment of forest conservation, with the state having a total forested area of 65% based on satellite imagery for 2013/2014.

“We also care about environment. As chief minister, I have been flying over the state every week and I can see greenery upon greenery. What I see does not lie. It is not a desert or a burnt-out forest. There is plenty of greenery.”

It was only three years ago that the previous chief minister claimed that up to 97% of our land area remained under forest cover. I would like to know whether oil palm plantations are considered forested areas as they are green as well.

Adenan said areas identified as orang utan habitats had also been well protected and made completely off-limits to plantation development and logging.

The labour shortage in the oil palm sector and its reliance on foreign workers, who constitute up to 80% of the total workforce, are well documented. Low wages is also a big issue.

The industry’s own data showed that in early 2016, some executives and supervisors had a starting pay of just RM800 per month – the statutory minimum wage. Eight out of 15 jobs at estate offices start at the minimum wage. Fourteen out of 24 job grades at palm oil mills start at the minimum wage. The minimum wage is supposed to cover only the lowest value jobs and inexperienced job holders.

Salary of each estate field worker starts at RM800 and goes up to a maximum of RM1,200 per month. This means that even after 20 years of working, their salary is just RM1,200 a month. The so-called productivity-linked piece-rated system of remuneration in the industry has contributed to the malaise and the shortage of workers.

The plantation industry is a major industry. It is in national interest to make the industry sustainable. However, it will not be sustainable if it continues to provide only low-value jobs at minimum wages.

As we move towards becoming a developed nation, it is no coincidence that more and more Malaysians aspire to a tertiary education so there will be fewer Malaysians available to perform menial, unskilled jobs and 3D (dirty, difficult, dangerous) jobs.

Even foreign workers are reluctant to work in the sector as data show that they are migrating to other sectors.

This raises the issue of whether it is wise economically and environmentally to open up so much land for oil palm, only to create 3D jobs for foreigners who remit their salaries back home.