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Thursday, January 15, 2015

The sorry legacy of Rahman Ya’kub

His departure will see changes for the better in Sarawak, especially for the Dayaks.
COMMENT
tun abdul Rahman Yakub_300OBITUARY
They say it’s not the done thing to speak ill of the dead. But it’s also said, as Shakespeare did, that the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
This is not about the good that Abdul Rahman Ya’kub did, but how he squatted on the Dayak nation in Sarawak and Sarawakians in general. If his apologists think that history will be kinder to him, they could not be more wrong. No amount of spin on his and his nephew Abdul Taib Mahmud’s behalf will sell.
Quite a bit of the political mischief that Abdul Rahman carried out in Sarawak was at the behest of the Federal Government, as he was its chief proxy in Borneo until Taib took over, and in cahoots with the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and the Chinese business community.
As Abdul Rahman lies in his freshly dug grave, it’s an opportune moment to take stock of the state of the nation in Sarawak.
The Dayaks, the majority community in Sarawak, is by and large Christian. Yet no Christian has been appointed Governor of Sarawak since 1963 when the last British Governor left. Louis Barieng, the only Christian who became Governor, had to become a Muslim – Abang Muhammad Salahuddin – before he was installed in the post. Luis Barieng is still around.
Except for Stephen Kalong Ningkan, who was removed under emergency decrees and Penghulu Tawi Sli, no Christian has ever since then headed the Sarawak Government.
It can be said that it really doesn’t matter who becomes Chief Minister of Sarawak. Does it matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it can catch mice? Besides, the criterion for being Chief Minister is not race or religion but the ability to command the confidence of the majority in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly.
The majorities of Abdul Rahman and Taib were “tainted”, since they were not democratic, and therefore have done grievous harm to the Dayak nation.
The Barisan Nasional (BN) concept circumvents the democratic process by endorsing elite power-sharing and denying the grassroots majority meaningful participation in elections. It’s important to ban coalitions before elections if democracy is to really take root in Sarawak and give a government which reflects what the people want. At present, they have lost their sovereignty to a handful in power, who are proxies in Sarawak for their political masters in Putrajaya.
Divide and rule
It would not be complete if we did not state that at present, under the BN concept, all Muslim seats are allotted to the Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), all Chinese seats to the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), and Dayak seats chopped up among all political parties to emasculate the majority community and reduce them to a voiceless minority. This is the classic colonial divide and rule tactic used by the British.
The Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), the 18 Points and the Sarawak Constitution state no religion. Yet there’s an Assistant Minister for Islamic Religious Affairs. How could that happen in a Christian nation in defiance of the intentions of the founding fathers in Borneo and the intention of the framers of MA63, 18P and the Sarawak Constitution?
It was Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Malayan Prime Minister, who created the present political system in Sarawak so that the Malayan Government could rule by proxy in Kuching. Tunku was the same man who publicly pledged that Malaya would not colonize Sabah and Sarawak after the British left. He also pledged that Sabah and Sarawak would be developed to be on par with Malaya, the peninsula.
Both promises were not kept.
Instead Abdul Rahman Yakub was installed by Tunku as the Malayan Government’s first proxy in Sarawak. In return for his undivided loyalty to his political masters in Kuala Lumpur, Abdul Rahman had a licence to do as he pleased in Sarawak. It was this licence that helped lay the foundation for the tremendous war chest that he and Taib built up.
Abdul Rahman even warned the longhouse dwellers that anyone who crossed his path would be ruthlessly crushed. He was even so bold as to confess that he was worth RM7 billion. Later, Taib made the same boast but in a different way.
Both Abdul Rahman and Taib virtually implied money laundering but yet the authorities found no proof of their wrongdoing, indeed endorsing it by declaring that they followed proper procedures. Money laundering, under international laws in force since 911, is defined as having assets far in excess of what one could legitimately accumulate over a lifetime.
Abdul Rahman’s departure will see changes for the better in Sarawak, especially for the Dayaks. The emancipation of the Dayaks and Sarawak will begin the day that Taib is no longer on the scene.
It’s not true that Abdul Rahman and Taib were ever at loggerheads. Blood is thicker than water. The 1987 Ming Court Affair is an example.
Abdul Rahman, hinting at the “feud”, offered to lead the combined Malay-Dayak revolt against Taib but allegedly went on to tip off his nephew, who promptly called for snap elections.

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