Thorns in Adenan’s state election

COMMENT It will not be a surprise for Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) to win the next state election, neither will it be a show of support to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s administration.

This is because Sarawak, as we all know it, has always been a safe deposit for the ruling coalition, where the votes from the rural folks’ votes can be easily bought. Besides, a survey conducted by Merdeka Centre showed that Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem is popular.

Most people have predicted that Adenan will win, but the question is whether he will be able to retain the same number of seats or lose more seats to the opposition.

Expected pundits’ verdict

Whatever it is, as we can also expect, the pundits will be crowing again right after the election, that this is the mandate that the people of Malaysia have given to Najib to continue helming the nation.

In short, despite the amount of worldwide publicity that his 1MDB scandal has attracted, the people representing this country will continue to show their support to Umno, BN and Najib. Period. This will come out from the typical few cabinet ministers but more urbanites would only take this with a pinch of salt.

In his recent trip to Sarawak, Najib donated RM3 million to a mosque and RM1 million to an Anglican church. This, they say, is a gesture of goodwill to the Christian community, but people have forgotten that Sarawak has the biggest Christian population in this country.

While the mosques have often received big grants for its building funds, the churches have to raise their own money for the church buildings. Sarawakians must not forget that the RM1 million donated by Najib recently is only for one church, when the money could have been used to build many more small churches throughout the state.

Thorny issues

Like it or not, Adenan is facing some thorny issues, as amongst the Dayaks, people are talking about a new awakening. Despite being an oil producing state, its people are amongst the poorest and the most neglected. The natives are beginning to realise that their rights and privileges have not been taken care of by the Umno-led coalition.

Instead, much of the bumiputra privileges have only benefited a handful of cronies in the past and present. What Sarawakians are getting once every four years during the lead up to the elections, is a plastic water container or two, and maybe some small cash.

Although news of the 1MDB scandal has not been so well understood by most rural people, someone from East Malaysia told me that this can be easily explained by using the phrase, ‘Lintah darat hisap dana negara’ (‘Political Leeches’ siphoned off the country’s coffers). Most natives understand what a leech is.

There are no attempts to recover the missing billions. Investigations have been closed several times. Where are the billions of ringgit? This explains very well where the oil money has gone to, as the leeches are the ones responsible for siphoning off the country’s coffers.

1MDB had borrowed billions of ringgit, even sold one of its major assets (Edra), yet it is unable to pay the interests, leading to International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), declaring that it would terminate an agreement in June last year to provide financial support to 1MDB.

As the country’s coffers have dropped substantially, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced last year. This is the biggest issue that every Sarawakian has to contend with every day. No thanks to the GST, prices of goods and services have gone up very high for every Sarawakian.

Besides that, the petrol subsidies have been cut, making the state’s own natural resources more expensive to its natives. The currency has dropped, making it more expensive to purchase motors that are imported from overseas.

Policies made in Putrajaya can no longer be seen as ‘remote’ or an issue involving only the West Malaysians, because these policies affect the daily livelihood of the people of Sarawak. These are the thorns that Adenan and his ‘gang’ would have to face as the election campaign gets heated up.

Ongoing court cases

Another thorny issue Adenan will have to deal with is the use of the term ‘dan lain-lain’ (and others) referring to the bumiputra of Sarawak.

As pointed out by the state PKR chairperson Baru Bian, unless the federal and state constitutions are amended, the announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi does not hold water. It is nothing but a whitewash solution for the East Malaysian natives.

Then, there are numerous other ongoing court cases involving the native customary land (NCR) which are still thorns on Adenan’s side. Had the project continued, the proposed Baram hydroelectric dam would have taken away NCR on land in affected areas. However, there are other cases that affecting the NCR of Sarawakians.

Another thorn is the controversy over the use of the name ‘Allah’ in the Malay Bible. Although Najib had inked the 10-point agreement, on a number of occasions it had been ignored by the federal agencies.

For example, eight personal compact discs belonging to one Melanau Christian, Jill Ireland were confiscated by the customs at the KLIA2, before the Kuala Lumpur High Court finally ruled in favour of the owner some five or six years later.

Recently, the Kuching High Court ruled in favour of a Sarawakian Bidayuh Rooney Rebit who had applied for a change of name and religion. The Bidayuh man had been converted to Islam as a child but subsequently decided to become a Christian.

If the National Registration Department (NRD) decided to appeal the case, it would become another fresh thorn on Adenan’s side. What if the church pastors decided to tell their congregations what Putrajaya was trying to do to impose their views on religion for Sarawakians?

Ban on West Malaysian politicians

With the state election on, a number of West Malaysian politicians and activists have been denied entry into Sarawak. Clearly, this has not been so well received by 46 percent of the voters polled by Merdeka Centre recently.

It speaks volume to the voters on the kind of government that they will be voting for, and unless Adenan relents on his current position, this will surely be a fresh thorn for him and his election machinery.

It certainly shows that even someone as amicable as Adenan is unwilling to play the game on level field. With the barring of the opposition leaders, it simply means that the locals have to work extra hard on their own turfs. They will have to double their efforts to reach out to their own rural communities.

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STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. -Mkini