Defeated Sarawak Political Parties

The Sarawak National Party (SNAP) has been asked to “close shop” by an SPDP vice President and it was headlines in a local tabloid a few days back. This little boy gesture for them to "tutup kedai" is seen as an embarrassment.

SNAP is today left far behind politically in the State with zero seats in the State cabinet, so nobody cares about this oldest political group whether they close shop or not or do whatever they want to do. Everyone knows that it is led by a bunch of disgruntled politicians who have made some failed strategies. They are obviously fading out, losing all their deposits except for 1 state constituency in the recently concluded State Elections.

The party that could fall into the same trap is SUPP or Sarawak United Peoples Party, the oldest Chinese based Party which always claimed to be "multi-racial" with tongue in cheek. This Party will soon be fated to go too if they still carry on with their make believe that the Chinese electorates are behind them. Their days are numbered with the Chinese having made their voice heard loud and clear that their choice today is DAP. With only 2 Chinese YBs left in the State Cabinet representing them, SUPP should re-examined their set-up internally, come down to earth and accept the fact that they are now a “defeated” foe of DAP. They have to change their ways and face facts.

Conspicuously Wealthy Political Bums

You have been asked to kick the backside of the opposition! Would you do it? Or would you kick the backside of those Conspicuously Wealthy BN Politicians.

Come November 2010 the State Elections will probably be held and my prediction is BN in Sarawak will be in for a shock with defeats in areas they never would dream of losing. It will be autumn blues for them. Why is this so? What made me to think so? It is simply so because the voters and people in Sarawak are entering into a new phase of political maturity. The realization of all the wrongs created by leaders of the BN Government in Sarawak led by a conspicuously wealthy CM is too much for their conscious mind to bear. The people are fed up with a bunch of the old Guards led by Taib, George and Alfred.

You only need to look around you to realize that things have gone widely wrong in Sarawak. Roads, especially our highways are way below average, developments have been hap-haphazardly handled and going in to the hands of cronies and above all, how the hell did some BN ministers and YBs become conspicuously wealthy?

Hearing the speeches by some of our BN politicians can make many peace loving people in Sarawak sick because BN tends to be in a state of denial with their old style rhetoric in trying to win hearts by political "sweet talks" which are pretty outdated. Whenever they harped about having done the state good, it smelled "basi". And laughably people are always reminded to kick the backside of the opposition.

Sarawakians are now leveling themselves into a new era with the internet as the tool to kick on the backside of the big talkers in the BN camps. Let’s wait for a couple more months, that will be the day when many political bums will be kicked out for good.

The POISONS in Sarawak's Politics

It amazes me why Sarawakians are so keen in forming new political parties of late. Are they not satisfied with the present State Government led by the old man Taib? Are they fed up with corruption within the State BN Government? What are their motives? Aren’t they enough political parties already around in Sarawak to demand yet the formation of more parties? Is this going to be the trend in Sarawak which at one time was also happening in Sabah? And finally, will such action destabilize the supposedly calm political scenario in Sarawak and make the BN State Government more vulnerable to losing power?

The General Elections in the state should be just round the corner so these aspirants of change may want to give it a go, all claiming that they will fight for the rakyat in their own style. The irony is they know that standing as independents will not get them far. A political platform is what they are looking for, to start somewhere somehow. Win or lose is another thing.

Having said all that, one thing is for sure and that is, everyone in Sarawak knows that the time for the Chief Minister to step down as Chief Minister is overdue and very much overdue. The old man Taib is unperturbed so it seems of the “slander” and controversy thrown at him lately. The controversy is of course on the amount of assets he has overseas. To put it simply, how did he and his family become so rich when we know that he came not from a millionaire background. Has he now been cornered with people talking about his "ill gotten" wealth? For those reading this and wanting to find out more about the so called wealth accumulated by the Chief Minister, they could easily log in to Sarawak Report.org. I stumbled upon the website recently and found it to be interesting. It holds water.

Today, I read the papers about our Iban leaders politically fascinating themselves by shooting poison arrows at one another. This is typical longhouse politics. None are so outstanding that they can be called heroes. Many people and men of their blood have jibed at them as traitors. They are just lucky to be where they are, circumstances played into their hands and they became leaders. They are perhaps not traitors but opportunists in their own rights. Say one thing and do another.

Becoming CM - He'd rather Self Destruct

Politics hit its lowest level yesterday in Sarawak when it was suggested that Alfred Jabu is the able man to become the next Ketua Menteri. His nemesis Dundang of SNAP supported the idea together with a few prominent Dayaks who gave their approval too.

The Iban Jabu isn’t happy at all. He has asked that such nonsense be stopped immediately. And according to Jabu himself, he just wanted to keep his role as team player. That was no excuse but to please his Boss. Surely we all know that Jabu will self destruct because he dare not lift any fingers at his boss, Taib. How could he offend the man he loved so much.

I thought for once that BN has run out of ideas to suggest old man Jabu to lead Sarawakians. It gives me the giggle.

SCORE = Patronage Politics

Will SCORE be underscored and bring more fortune to those who already display extreme wealth in Sarawak?

For some cynical reasons, people have labeled it Project Ketua Menteri. This statement cannot be wrong when a dictator is not a dictator. After all, the Ketua Menteri controls the State Government and almost all the major businesses in Sarawak or at least his family does.

What we know as the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy has been set to bring all the goodies to the people of Sarawak. That’s what the website says. While you may accept it positively as a step in the right direction which it must be otherwise it will make the government looks stupid, I take it with a pinch of salt.

Let’s focus on what we understand as “patronage politics”. It is when tenders will only be awarded to a selected few within one’s group. With SCORE, it has to be those who have already displayed extreme wealth in the BN group. This is to allow the flow of funds into the bureau to seal BN’s power in the state. Millions and millions of ringgit will then be embezzled legally. To achieve this, the whole system will be in “reverse gear”, that is to say, money will be the instrument to get things done. Everything will then have an “artificial” fee capped to it. Mismanagement sets in, the circle becomes vicious and corruption persists.

When the propagation of a capitalistic environment becomes wider, we shall get a situation where the selected few who controlled the market becoming extremely wealthier.

Some questions that need to be asked are: Will matters get worst in Sarawak? Will it only benefit the privileged few? Will it end up like the "AP" case that benefit only Bumi entrepreneurs? Will workers once again be grossly exploited, underpaid?

In the doldrums because People swallowed the BN bait

I travelled over the weekend talking to people in Sarawak. I kept my diary. I spoke to 10 people and 9 say BN will be shown the way out by the rakyat. I don’t know how to respond, I am surprised. Would I believe this? We really don’t know whether it will come through. But we do know that they were nearly shown the “Exit Door” during the last GE. MIC failed, Gerakan failed, MCA failed and UMNO had their biggest nightmare. They had been saved by the 2 backward states of Sabah and Sarawak. And UMNO, the controlling party and head of the government suddenly woke up to the fact that Sabah and Sarawak are their forte.

The most interesting issue is UMNO leaders only discovered that Sabah and Sarawak had all this while been left in the doldrums in terms of development. They assumed all had gone well, not until of late. This is the reason why Najib and his government are doing all it can now to close the wide gap between the “have” and “have not” in these 2 states. The poor in either Sabah or Sarawak are undoubtedly hardcore poor.

The reason for being so poor is simply that we have been dominated and neglected. We have been ruled by selfish BN leaders who raped the system for their own gains. We have for over 40 years been constantly indoctrinated with sweet talks under what they termed as “Politics of Development” by UMNO sanctioned leaders, a few generations of them.

People have swallowed the bait and support the State BN government without questioning any of their ulterior motives. BN was therefore able to win and kept on winning in Sarawak. As a result, only a handful would dare to speak out on things like corruption, the NCR land issue and misuse of funds by awarding contracts to proxies.

If the older generation of the natives are law abiding citizens who gave their support to BN to ensure BN victories all these years, the younger set are now realizing how backward Sabah and Sarawak really were in many areas of the economy and its infrastructure. Schools, clinics, roads and basic amenities in rural areas etc are way behind those in West Malaysia. Only a fool would say we are ahead.

Crafty Moves by Politicians? - Think Harder

Come On, you must be kidding to even propose of taking the states of Sarawak and Sabah out of Malaysia. Although I have my reservations, this is just a dream of some unhappy politicians who want publicity. We have enough bumps as it is now to think wildly of this move which is like starting an “uprising” in Sarawak or Sabah. To rebel in such a way is not my cup of tea.

Instead of showing anger on the international stage and stooping down to the British government and parliamentarians for help and assistance, it would be a lot better to focus on what needs to be done and corrected in these two states. We can absolutely move forward in many areas both politically and economically, one major initiative is right in hand and that is, to deny the BN victories in the 2 states.

Of course many bumps have to be blasted out first to make us win. It needs planning and thoughts and a lot of it. Underrating BN is not wise, bulldozing by venting our anger and belittling individual politicians may not be effective anymore. RPK did just that and he ended up marooned and a “wanted” man. We must remember that BN has all the “powers” to squash you out of sight including using the ISA. That’s enough of my rhetoric.

What I wish to point out in this post is the way BN has exploited us, the rakyat for our money through the process of government. When camouflaged by what they called “revenue”, we are made to believe that the BN government is doing the right things. We then pay all our "dues" obediently, absorbing all the taxes, levies and what have you. So whilst you dig into your pockets and sometimes figuring how to make ends meet, BN political leaders may be celebrating with easy hard cash.

Most of our BN political leaders in Sarawak and Sabah have wriggled their way to be wealthy businessmen with vested interests in corporations and private companies. It would not be good to show up their names here, that's not my intention. The fact is we know they are generating income for themselves through the legal process, their undeclared assets run into millions of ringgit. We also know that the government's call for “privatization” would normally be grabbed up and run by elected representatives and their proxies. And indirectly, when appointed to sit in the board, they are the "untouchables". The pretext that "privatization" would increase efficiency so as to render the rakyat better service is just an excuse.

Now think about this: Both you and I will have paid a little for the parking tickets imposed on us every time we park our cars, we thought it is alright. But that small sum is actually a “squeeze” on our pockets. Similarly, the unrealistically high “tolls” in West Malaysia is always thought of as mere collection to upkeep the highways. It is not. The MIC President lost his seat because of it.

1Malaysia Political Bums in Sarawak

How on earth are you going to unite Malaysians under 1Malaysia when some BN quarters symbolize it as a BN entity? Yes, 1Malaysia has been politicized and circumcised by BN. You cannot expect a PAS or DAP member to put on the 1Malaysia badges with the BN logo in the background. Perhaps this has not caught anyone's attention. It doesn’t matter really because we know that 1Malaysia from the day it was launched, has been questioned and ridiculed by the opposition and not fully understood by the majority of Malaysians at large. The recent news that it is “copycat stuff” from Israel is very disturbing, certainly amongst hard core Muslims.

1Malaysia is not as bumpy in Sarawak as it is in West Malaysia. The bumps here are obnoxiously different. In fact we do not need to go heads over heels with 1Malaysia in Sarawak where people of all races have enjoyed their lives and carry on living in peace and tranquility over the decades ever since the days of the white Rajahs.

However, Sarawakians are in no way a bunch of crimpy Homo sapiens who accept things passively. There is truth in the older generation of the natives who are accustomed to the “adat” of respecting their “bosses” taught to them and inherited from the British colonial rule. This is good value appreciated by the young but it must not be taken as a rule of thumb that Sarawakians are born to be followers of their bosses. Let me put it right, we have no damn bosses.

When there are bumps in the system, it is only a natural instinct for people to protest and they can opt to do this in many ways. That accounts for all the barbarous "cow head" and "pig head" acts seen in West Malaysia.

The bumps in Sarawak are not religious in nature nor is it racial, let’s all be clear on that. Our bumps created by crafty BN political leaders are about the inadequate infrastructure, roads, clinics, schools etc etc after 40 years of plastered rule by UMNO dictators. To the natives, it's about the BN government abusing NCR land belonging to the Dayaks. But most importantly it’s about political power in the hands of a few BN political bums who are filthy rich and not wanting to hand over political leadership to the younger generation.