Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud has delivered a special message to mark the festive season. Among his comments is a comical demand which will no doubt add to the merriment: stop criticising the government!
According to Bernama:
“If there are (sic) chaos in the country, it will be impossible for us to celebrate any festivity. We should therefore take stock of what the government has done for us,” he said in his Hari Raya message.
He also said that Malaysians were fortunate to have a prime minister “who has the qualification and a leader who cares for the people’s well-being”.
These remarks coming from a Colombo Plan Australian-trained lawyer, no less.
Adding further to the merriment, Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu has cast doubt that the 600 signatures in a memorandum on Murum dam (titled Rakyat Didahulukan, Projeck Empangan Murum Dihentikan’) belonged to the Penan affected by the mega project.
The Borneo Post quotes him as saying:
Do you really believe that all the signatures in the memorandum belong to the Penans? To me, I don’t believe it. I totally do not believe it.
When contacted, Raymond Abin, the director of the Borneo Resources Institute, insisted these were genuine Penan signatures and thumb prints in blue and black ink. In other words, they were not from phantom Penan.
“I don’t know how he (Jabu) came to that conclusion when he and the Chief Minister did not come to receive the memorandum,” said Abin, who was among 15 activists and Penan reps arrested when they tried to submit it to the Sarawak leaders.
Meanwhile, the Borneo Post reports that the Penan have “agreed to end a nearly month-long anti-logging blockade in the Tutoh-Apoh region yesterday after key negotiators Telang Usan assemblyman Lihan Jok and Miri Resident Dr Ngenang Janggu assured them the government would bring development to their community”.
But a lawyer acting for the Penans, See Chee How, disputes this version of events. In a press statement carried by Hornbill Unleashed, he expressed shock and disgust with Lihan Jok, saying that the state assembly member “did not tell the truth when he reportedly said that the Penans had agreed to dismantle blockades and to allow logging to resume in the timber concession areas”.
As for the Borneo Post itself, what else can you expect from a news organisation that is linked to a major timber company (KTS) with interests in logging in native customary land?
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Very upsetting indeed…!
Penans are human beings too. We all bleed the same colour of blood. They live in wooden huts & that “feller” lives in brick house…
The only difference is their way of live.
The way this Ligok fella is behaving is like as if Sarawak belongs only to him…
“Deforestation” of Sarawak MUST stop..!!! How has it benefitted the Penans by doing this..???
Not for them… I’m sure!!!!!!!!!
That’s all he’s interested in… “In himself”..!!!
Any comments on how he’s gonna handle the rape of the Penan girls…?????
Eeerr…. rape the forest first..????
Ok, who wants to go to Sarawak with me to help these folks?
Ken
Precisely, he is ruling Sarawak like he IS the Rajah but on who’s authority? If you are a Sarawakian, would you like to be a subject under the rule of a white rajah or white-haired ‘rajah’?
This is the 21st century and our Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy. He is the Chief Minister mandated by the people to govern the state in accordance with fair governance and justice.
Towards the latter part of his reign, Rajah Charles Brooke (II) considered himself Dayak, thus only making himself eligible as Rajah. The white Rajahs did covet neither jungle logs nor ancestral land.
In contrast, those after the Rajahs, try to extinguish Native Custumary Rights over land, and in the process in danger of extinguishing the Dayaks tribes themselves, especially the 12,000 “strong” near-extinct Penans !
Kuching.
Lynn, but he IS the “raja” … not the White Raja but the white haired “raja” of Sarawak
Now we know where the generous mp get his money donating here and there.
People,
I only have words for Taib Mahmud. What a tangled web he weaves. Not sure he can get out of the mess. Perhaps, this was the reason why Pakatan Rakyat scrambling over to reap those rewards
By the way, Sarawak is a big state. Preserving KBP style villages so long that it beyonds the borders of townx/cities would be ok.
To some disgruntled folks, those are indegenious people who ain’t entitled with bumiputra special position. Kindly keep your KBP rhetorics with you
Fatimah,
Selamat Hari Raya to you and your family. Enjoy your time with your family.
Malaysia have always been screwed up with financial scandals since the BMF scandal. Now the PKFZ is the latest to hurt the nation and its people. The BN government has to be accountable to the billions of ringgit lost. It’s not a RM1 loss but RM12.5b. Taxpayers’ money flushed into the toilet bowl – never to return. Who gained most from this turmoil? If this were to happen in Japan, the US or India for that matter the whole cabinet will resign. In this country, the denial syndrome keeps on ringing to deceit the people. This is the problem when… Read more »
To progress we have to look at the reality. If Pakatan can be a better government the people should choose Pakatan to lead. IF Barisan Nasional can do a better a job, the people should choose Barisan Nasional to govern. It’s not a matter of “masuk” BN or “masuk” Pakatan. We want a clean governmnet, void of racism and injustice. The people dearly want a 2-part system for the country. A 1-party system is bad for a democracy and for the people. Absolute power leads to absolute corruption. with power many issues will be swept under the carpet. The people… Read more »
Hue, don’t forget that … relative of Taib called Affendi Nawawi … when he was the Chairman of SEDC…
I have been pondering on how Sarawak arrived at this point and I realise that it can be attributed two titchy little men from an equally titchy little ethnic tribe called Melanaus , Taib and his uncle the former CM. Between them they have brought the people of Sarawak to their knees, especially the majority Dayaks. Just think : two tiny little men over the last 30 odd years have been able to do this and we allowed it to happen. This makes me wonder at the mentality of Sarawakians, and I am one myself although I have never voted… Read more »
These self serving … politicians are a bunch of … carriers to ensure their survival and thats what that Taib wants them to be..when …. hits the fan, guess what, that … will probably be running off to Canada and leave you … behind to face the music. His modus operandi has always been, he is not aware of it. … Every square inch of S’wak he has his eye on … The things they say in the papers is purely for their own amusement and it seems they like the sound of their own voice very much..they lie through… Read more »
mesti ramai ur visitor will accused u masuk BN if u publish that one…but they also have to accused malaysiakini masuk bn..lol
anil,
have you read this link about Kpg Buah Pala in Malaysiakini?
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/113247
In Sabah and Sarawak the rich are the timber tycoons. Thes states are agro-based and lacks industrialisation. They have no technology, no inventions, no pro-active measures to develop like some western countries, or singapore for that matter. It’s all short term. Those who handle the forest are filthy rich and (many of them) put a bulk of their money overseas. They buy properties overseas. They are actually plundering the states. They have no confident in their own states. No sense of patriotism at all. Guess who they are? The true people of Sabah and Sarawak will take a long long… Read more »
I would like to ask Sarawak Chief Minister, does he really think he’s the ‘raja’ of Sarawak taking over from the white raja Charles Brook of the British colonial regime? Stop criticising the government? You mean you are the feudal master and we are the feudal servants and when you say stop criticising, we must shut up, issit? ‘Prime minister who has the qualification and a leader who cares for the people’s well-being’?? Sorry, CM Taib, you are entitled to think so but our PM has dark shadows tainting him… which has not convinced a lot of people that such… Read more »
Borneo Post (BP) = BERITA PEMBOHONG.