Rural folk get no help from Jabu

theantdaily 

The photo on Facebook is fairly quaint and simple at face value: a kettle on a wood stove. It could have been taken anywhere like a remote timber camp, homestay lodging or plantation workers’ quarters.

The 114-word caption is like a report card which is not so quaint. Essentially, it describes the kettle as being in the kitchen of a secluded longhouse in Betong Division, Sarawak.

The longhouse, home to 32 people (18 of whom are registered voters), is accessible only by foot along jungle paths going across crocodile-infested rivers. It is too dangerous for motorcycles.

There is no piped water or electricity supply. Instead, the residents constructed their own gravity feed system from a hill stream and rely on diesel-powered generators.

Vernon Kedit, Sarawak PKR information chief, said that he felt quite shocked that people still live like this in the 21st century but pointed out that there are many like it in Sarawak.

This longhouse is just a few kilometres from Betong town, which has been touted as an emerging urban centre benefiting from development of commercial and institutional structures.

It is in the state constituency of Layar for which the assemblyman is none other than Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang, Deputy Chief Minister, State Minister of Rural Development and State Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture.

Taking it a notch higher (or lower, depending on how one views this), the MP for Betong since 1986 is Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas.

Neither minister has ever visited the longhouse, nor has any elected representative or minister in history, according to the residents.

Vernon did not reveal the name of the longhouse to any of the numerous people who made enquiries.

“I would rather not disclose the name or location,” he said in response to theantdaily’s query during a brief interview.

“The moment I say it, Special Branch, Kemas [Department of Community Development] or Jasa [Department of Special Affairs] will go there and the deputy chief minister might go there with goodies.

“I live in Layar as well and in my longhouse, we have modern kitchens, Astro, air-conditioning and hot showers.

“This particular kitchen did not have a gas stove or gas tank and I was quite disgusted to see people living like this in the 21st century in Malaysia.

“It is disgusting that some of us live in palaces and have chefs to cook our meals while others boil water using firewood,” he said.

The residents said they had been neglected all this while because they lived deep in the interior and there were not many voters.

Vernon said that Jabu likes to say that Betong is pretty developed compared to other areas and he did agree with the latter to a certain extent.

The “mini Putrajaya” in Betong houses the office of the state Land and Survey Department and a few others. It is under-utilised and nothing much is happening there, he pointed out.

“So we have KFC and a mini Putrajaya but is this how you measure development?” asked Vernon.

“If that’s how he [Jabu] measures development, it is a very warped perspective of development in my point of view.

“For me, development is where everyone should have access to the three main basics – clean water, electricity and access to the main roads.

“We had to go through a jungle trek to get to the longhouse and it’s not really far from Betong town.

“I’m not expecting them to build a six-lane carriageway to the longhouse but at least there should be a tar-sealed road to the main road.”

Vernon emphasised that he has nothing personal against Jabu. Instead, he opposes not for the sake of opposing but because he sees injustice and wants to right what is wrong.

“I speak out but I don’t speak falsehoods. I show incontrovertible evidence: a boiling kettle. If Jabu sees my speaking out as being unkind to him, then that’s his interpretation.

“I’m just doing my duty as PKR information chief to speak out for the people who can’t speak out for themselves, afraid to speak out or who don’t know how to speak out.”