PM meet Sarawak YBs

Written by: Dr. John Brian Anthony

What is happening to the Chief Minister of Sarawak so much so that the PM has to come and help sort out the internal government matters in Sarawak. Is our Chief minister still capable of leading the BN State Government? Is the Chief Minister competent enough to implement changes in the state? Or does the Federal government felt that Taib is no more capable of implementing development in sarawak without resorting to corrupt practices?

The questions are many despite the many people I met shared with me that PM is trying to impress Sarawakian with new promises as election is just round the corner.

Why do the PM need to come to sort issues in Sarawak?

This should be the function of the Chief Minister unless the chief Minister is running out of ideas on how to run the State of Sarawak.

Tomorrow, BN YBs will meet the PM and they have been advised to bring issues and problems directly to the PM without fear or favor. Why is the condition ” YB must bring all issues no matter what it is as openly as possible” to the PM. Has the YBs in sarawak being stopped from speaking and voicing out the problem in Sarawak?

Bring these questions up with the PM

Is the NCR land survey solved? Will the YB take up Taib richest through corruption and abuse of power and highlight it to the PM as one of the problem on why urban voters is not supporting BN? Will the matter of marginalization of Sarawakian be brought up in specific ways – the ratio of employee in the civil service, the Islamization of the Dayak program which the Dayak find offensive, the grabbing of Dayak NCR land and given to the rich as depriving the Dayak opportunities of development the land themselves in the future. Will the YB bring up the widening gap between the rich and the poor is getting larger year after year of BN rule? Will the YBs talk urgently of specific infra-structure requirement that the people has been deprive off since Malaysia was formed.

The YBs can also talk about the poor participation of Dayak in business as insufficient training, business mentoring program, the initial capital fund, the distribution of “business quota”, the forest timber license, the plantation provisional lease, the dams, the various land development business for commercial shop houses and dwelling, the issuance of individual land titles to land owners etc. How about ways to solve the piling up of NCR land owners against the government.

Could the YBs be open and honest about all these problems when they talk to Najib, as prime Minister. Or has Taib met the YBs before the YBs meet Najib tomorrow and that Taib may have set guidelines to the YB questions?

All these are question we educated people must ask as the process of the meeting has not been made clear except that BN YBs are to submit their problems to Najib as honest as they can be?

Sarawak has poor planning – YBs have little ad hoc input

This is always a lingering question in my mind. Did our elected YB ever involved directly in planning, identifying needs, review resources, monitor progress against target in their own constituency. Is it the Resident and District Officer job to do the planning and implementation of development in the Division or District? Why are the YB talking in circle about projects and other development without proper road map and even review progress report? why are all development being politized including the role and function of the Government servant?

To me it all point out that the elected YBs do not understand the process of planning, implementation, monitoring and review. Most YB do not have experience in the last job that allow them to be able to become managers of development in their own constituency. There are a lot of incompetent leaders selected to stand as candidate for BN and thus their low managerial and leadership quality is affecting the progress in Sarawak. Time are spent more on politicking and looking for business and money through corrupt ways.

Call for effective leadership

I am not at all surprise by this call from Taib. Taib has pulled these so called leaders by the nose and they gladly follow him. he knows of their low capability and understanding of process and development concept. So uch so that they depended on Taib to provide all the concept of development. we can see that even the mechanism used for the land development is flawed, the Yb do not seemed to know and they push through the program blindly. The general public have to stand up and opposed the program while the YBs instead of looking out for solution they started to bash up the people who provide them with input and feed back. It is time we have better quality leadership voted into government in the next election.

It is a fact that many Dayak leaders are not effective and not clever enough to think on the most basic concept of development. Many could not understand economics and how it works and the impact of good governance over the people. These YB were former government servant and they election to be an elected representative represent a continuity to their government servant employment. It is pathetic but true. They have never unlearn their civil service mentality into that of enriching the community and enabling the people to bring better progress to the State. It is a shame but sadly true.

Conclusion

What would be the expected outcome of the meeting between the PM and the YBs? I guess many expect that the input will be compressed into “election promises”, project kilat list, a new strategy to offset opposition gain on negative issues and a message for them to be loyal to BN.

For DayakBaru, we are focus on bring Change, change to the people thinking to change itself and also an insistence to Change WE Must if we are to have a better future for all Sarawakian.