Thursday, May 20, 2010

CORRUPTION Camouflaged

Money can be gotten in many ways and one way is to abuse the tendering system. In Malaysia and Sarawak, contractors who are nobody today can be somebody the next day after securing just one big government project which may run up to hundreds of millions. Road construction is where most of the money is. Stories of the “nobody” who made millions from just one deal, catapulting him or her to be “somebody” are always told in the coffee shops. They are all true. Such deals would normally involve the PKK Class “A” or CIDB G7 contractors.

It is quite normal for projects to be “sold” to a second party at 2/3 of the cost which is surely an indication of the price having been inflated in the first place. How does it work and how do they do it have always been interestingly asked by the rakyat. Unless you are familiar with procedures involved in tendering, you will never know how they are being manipulated to favour only cronies of the BN government. Of course politics has a hand. Sarawakians are not that foolish not to know at least what is happening in the award of these big tenders. Days of the 1980s are gone!

SCORE which is known by many as Project Ketua Menteri will see many millionaires becoming multi millionaires in Sarawak soon. You can safely bet that BN activists with some family members of the Ketua Menteri will grab a bigger piece of the cake. Others in the inner circles like state ministers from the component parties will scramble for what is left.

The whole cycle is vicious and smelly. If such unwarranted activities are not checked and checked quick by the Najib government, it can lead to the downfall of BN in Sarawak. Just watch!

Monday, May 17, 2010

A New Chapter for Sarawak

What are up the sleeves of BN now that they have lost Sibu to DAP? Are they going to honour every ringgit they have promised the Sibu people? That is left to be seen. Election promises in Sarawak were seldom kept and after 40 years Sarawakians may not be too optimistic this time around too.

One can bet that a thorough post mortem will be done by SUPP pretty soon. Is George Chan going to blame the BN Foochow leaders in Sibu again? Will the hornet’s nest be stirred up once more from within the Chinese based BN party? Let’s ask ourselves as to “Why” BN lost the Election? According to Najib, BN failed to make good and proper use of its powerful machinery and relied too much on the old ways of campaigning. This is a lame excuse because everyone in Sibu knows that BN had their whole machinery and arsenal laid out in the Foochow town. They had bombarded the system left right and centre, so how could it be that BN had failed to make use of its power on the ground.

Let’s get straight to the point; BN has lost Sibu to DAP for many reasons which fundamentally affect the Chinese. The Urban Chinese voters in Sarawak want equality, equal rights to land, equal rights to licenses, equal rights to higher Education equal rights to joining the civil service, all of which they know they are being deprived of at the moment. And I would think that SUPP is losing support from the Chinese in Sarawak and becoming irrelevant to them for the same reasons. SUPP is seen by the Sarawak Chinese as ineffective when fighting for such rights.

Recapping, I thought there were glaringly hitches in making a due and quick announcement on the results last night. One can be sure that reasons given will always be biased and against the opposition so let’s not talk about that.

The fact that Sibu is a Foochow town and now controlled by the Sarawak DAP leader will leave many BN activists angry, SUPP for one, is embarrassed and upset. Don’t tell me they are not.