The end of Ketuanan Melanau is in your hand

The Pesta Gawai is just around the corner. For the natives of Sarawak, it is a time when they celebrate and enjoy the harvest, sharing the moment of thanksgiving with their families and friends from local and those returning home from peninsular and overseas. It’s a very meaningful celebrations served with various type of traditional and modern delicacies and drinks such as tuak.

But this fiesta only last for a while and after that its back to the reality of life. Behind the fiesta, which lasted for a few days in a year, many natives don’t realize the effects brought by modernization that have drowned their rights in the stream due to complexity of politics. Many still fanatically believe in the manifesto brought by the faces of smart liars who promise unity, development and prosperity. Realize it or not, massive deforestation that shifted the habitat of Penan, exploitation and surrendering of various NCRs to federal government such as Bakun project and life without clean water, electricity, health, telecommunications and transportation system are some of the despairs and unhidden truths that have haunted the native groups of Sarawak. Realize it or not, the natives have been ruled under the shadow of Ketuanan Melanau. Been the largest group in Sarawak population at 43% compare to Malay, Melanau and Chinese, the dayaks are been confined to playing the supporting roles to the other races over the states politics and socio-economics.

The native BN leaders so far, have been mute and deaf over most of their people’s claims, a sign that there have been so comfortable and spell bounded under the leadership of BN. Taib’s leadership in PBB has not been challenged since 1981 and now PBB is run like his own palace while Jabu and native’s members are the puppeteers. The disunity among Dayak dominated parties such as SNAP and PBDS over the years, have creates various fractions of Dayak supporters and reformed Dayak parties. The current scenario shows that those who stay with Taib, remain politically strong due to BN's popularity and electoral dirty tricks while those who decided to leave seem to lose their popularity, and politically losing their stripes.

With the just concluded General Election as baseline, many see the Dayak reformed parties as weak and will give no impact to BN unless better strategies are drawn to prepare them to face the coming state election. With Barisan Rakyat spreading their wings to Sabah and Sarawak, many Dayak’s candidates had run in the previous election under the flagship of PKR. As for the native parties, the best thing by right is for the reformed parties to join Barisan Rakyat. At least as an alliance of Barisan Rakyat, they still maintain their identity as the natives while riding on the alliance’s tsunami experience to campaign against BN.

And for those of you, who will go back to your longhouses and villages for the Gawai Fiesta, spread the message of change to your families. Stop voting for the conmen who have betrayed your ethnic rights to other people. Never fall to the slavery of lustful rewards again should they ask voters to do so. Remember, when the voting stops for BN, the legacy of ketuanan Melanau and its cronies will come to an end in the next state election.

Could phantom be mystical?

The issue of phamtom voters is not something new in our electoral system. But their existence is nothing mystery in a small country like ours. Comparing to US, we are much more smaller in terms of population and yet we have so many problems with phantom voters.

PBRS offers to help EC weed out phantom voters. Kurup cited the example of identity card of a dead person ending up in the possession of someone else, usually an illegal immigrant. But logically speaking, even if the “outlaw” citizens do possess the identity card illegally, most of them will not dare to vote. Why, because they know they are illegal immigrants, who better not expose themselves to authority if possible. Unless there are some morons (especially BN) who summon them to be voters for certain candidates with assurance that they will not be caught and in return rewarded for their role as voters, only then they will show up, after the mutual deal between candidates and involved agencies.

The issue of phantom voters in Sabah is mainly BN’s dirty trick. Remember, this issue escalated fast during PBS golden era as the strongest opposition party in Sabah. Remember how Dr. M, brought in kris party to strengthen BN. Giving instance citizenship to illegal immigrants by giving condition that they vote for BN was nothing new. So this time around, the sincerity of BN in talking about their efforts to clear off phantoms is questionable and could be another political gimmicks.

The current SPR on the other hand, should be revamped and T. Sri Rashid should be sacked for his role in indelible ink saga. SPR should have a new fresh committee to uphold the integrity of electoral system. The issue of the phantom voters should be solved without involvement of the current SPR committee who has proven biased towards BN.

Lesson from Pedra Blanca, might happen to the states

So, it has been solidly confirmed that Malaysia lost Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore but in return we get back two little peebles. Peebles or rocks do not really matters. But, will the map of Malaysia going to shrink further in future?

But the people believe that with the best-justified evidence, hiring the best-imported lawyers together with our controversial Peguam Negara, sometime doesn’t help on our side. There’s another possible reason why we lose the case.

Sometimes, we don’t need the best panel of lawyers, the solid evidence to prove our claims on something. The local and foreign policy and smartness of the country’s leaders also are important. After our outspoken Dr. M retired, our sleepy Dollah and his bunch of ministers have been making a lot of jokes that expose our weaknesses to the world. The less intellect and foolishness of our government in the eyes of the world might have also contributed to this. This external factor might have some effect on the decision of the judges to award the sovereignty not the right country that deserves it.

With internal fighting going own, within UMNO, no doubt that the history will repeat itself once again to the time of Malay monarchists and how British Colonial forced the Sultan to surrender their power and states by exploiting some of events and culprit ministers in the government.

Imagine if our country, under the ruling of a weak government politically, socially and economically in future, don’t be surprised if our neighbouring countries will dare to make the following claims at ICJ:
1. Philipines lobbies for Sabah state and its cluster of islands based on the history of Sulu kingdom. Misuari has started his ridiculous claim. (Read Malaysia Today
2. Brunei on Sarawak, based on the history with Brooke’s dynasty since its oil is going to deplete soon.
3. Singapore’s expansion plan to Peninsular Malaysia through manipulating their solid claims on IDR. Another repeats of Pulau Batu Putih.

With the help of some culprit or ousted politicians to provide evidence, don’t be surprised if we will soon become loser at ICJ in future. By then, we will draft out a new map of Malaysia.

Oil price hike; shouldn't they be fair to the people, should they?

With global fuel prices reaches USD135 per barrel, will the state of Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak experience the increase in oil royalty rewarded to them by the federal government? Will the fuel subsidy change?

With price hike of 30% higher since early this year, Petronas who is the taiko to other foreign O&G companies in Malaysia should have racked in a handsome amount of profits to the company and additional wealth to Malaysia. That means, the government who owns Petronas as part of its list of GLCs, is also in good financial status.

So, there’s no reason for Malaysia to reduce fuel subsidy for the citizens. Don’t compare us to oil producing country, Indonesia who recently announced 30% fuel rise in its country because this country is so huge, chaotic, politically complicated and has been economic slave to IMF and US.

Back to the oil producing states, if Sami Vellu, during his years as the JKR Minister, able to influence the government for free toll highway only in his constituency, by right the people of Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak should enjoy more fuel subsidies and royalty due to the rich o&g resource in these states. It is God who has awarded these states the natural resources that has contributed to the wealth of the country. So Dollah, the son of a famous religious man, should be thankful and reward what comes from these states.

If the BN government is serious enough to reduce fuel subsidies, make sure this is the last choice before scrapping off all the useless and ridiculous projects. There’s no point spending another few billions for ridiculous government leaking complexes, villas, resorts, crystal mosques, bridges, highways, waterparks or monkey celebrations or parties such as stupid fireworks at Putrajaya, which do not benefit the people, beside your own cronies.

Remember, the 30% mentioned earlier will increase again due to global oil demands and the fortune will land on government’s hand again. In this scenario, the government should not decrease the fuel subsidies to the people. The rich oil producing countries such as Arab Saudi has shown a good example by maintaining a low fuel price for the welfare of its people. Singapore who doesn’t have oil, distributes a portion of profits earned by the government to each of its citizen regardless of whether they are Malay, Chinese or Indian. At least they remember their people’s welfare.

In Malaysia, the government is doing the best to provide bumiputras with special treatments compare to non-bumiputras. Unfortunately, they are more recorded non-bumiputras who reach the Forbes’ list of world’s richest compare to bumiputras. Seen from our own naked eyes, still there’s a lot of bumiputras living in poverty due to the spoon-feeding and the anak-anak tiri culture. So, one of the abilities to maintain the balance welfare between bumiputra and non-bumiputra in the country is to maintain or increase various type of subsidies such as fuel.

When Mr. Potato replaces rice

Rice is part of Malaysians’ dietary diet and source of carbohydrate for most Asians, besides wheat. Our ancestors have been taking rice for thousands of years. Ask the Malay, Chinese, Indian or Pribumi. They all take rice and its common that everyone realizes that rice is nutritious, and part of our food culture. We even have proverb in Malaysia related to rice such as harapkan pagar pagar makan padi. Conclusion is, rice is a symbol of life in our society.

In the latest development, due to global rice crisis, the government is advising the people to take potatoes (ubi) as an alternative diet to the rice. Gotcha! This is the manifesto BN used against PR during the election. Their seditious remark saying that PR will only creates hunger and potato will haunt the people back, just like their ancestors during the Japanese occupation. Now who’s the one that initiate potatoes intake for the people?

In actual fact, the current rice crisis was partially due to the failure of Dr. M’s policy during his industrialism era. During those days, many were so obsessed and proud of our various manufacturing industries. Goverment bought paddy fields and turn it into modern industrial zones. Because we focused too much on industries, we neglect the contributions from the food sectors such as rice although they don’t really generate export income at that time. And now under sleepy Dollah, when the rice crisis occurs, the government expects the people to pay the price for their mistakes?

Imagine if rice is totally replaced with ubi kentang, kayu, keledek:

1. Increase numbers of Malaysians having constipation problem due to excessive intake of certain ubi. Then the still living grandparents will start nagging at our ears about their struggles eating ubi kayu during WW II.

2. Due to its high demands, the crime of stealing potatoes at farms will increase because of their good selling price. Cable thieves might consider stealing potatoes.

3. Setup of more MUFC (not Manchester United FC but Malaysian Ubi Fried Chicken) to fulfill Malaysians new appetite for potatoes served with chickens.

4. More desperate policemen will no longer thirst for coffee but hunger for potatoes.

5. When nasi lemak becomes ubi lemak, nasi ayam becomes ubi ayam, nasi kandar becomes ubi kandar. Yukkss! Imagine the new looking dunks as a result of diarrhea served in plates.

6. Malay proverb such as nasi sudah jadi bubur will fade away and slowly ubi sudah jadi coleslaw will become synonym to our life.

The people’s power would like to suggest to the government on the following ways to bulk up rice production:

1. The government should go down and track each rice distributor to analyze the cost of rice. It is this group of people who will affect the grocery price of rice. There’s no point issuing finds to grocery shop owners if the problem is due to high distributor’s price.

2. Cabinet ministers should start taking potatoes first, as a role model to the people. No point of advising people to control spending or eat potatoes if they don’t show the practical example to the people.

3. The government should double up their efforts to encourage research on increasing the productivity of rice production. The demands from the ever-increasing Malaysian population prove that rice is really in high demands.

4. The government should encourage cropping of padi huma, which is currently common in Sabah and Sarawak, nationwide. This rice species need less water and less care too.

5. The contributions from paddy farmers should be honoured in special public holiday. We have labour day, teachers’ day, secretaries’ day, farmers’ day, police’ day and should consider gazetting paddymen’s day.

In fact, many of us never really appreciate the rice that we take daily if not due to the rice crisis. Some people have the habit of not finishing their rice during meal leaving a legacy of food wastage in the society. And for the paddy farmers, credits should be given for their sacrifices, as the basic supplier to the food chain. In fact, natives of Sabah and Sarawak have been celebrating their harvested paddy for many years during Hari Gawai and Hari Keamatan. As for potatoes, there shouldn’t be ruled out from our food choices. But nothing else is better than eating rice for Malaysian people.

As for BN government, after this you should stop cursing PR as only capable of promising potatoes to that of the struggling people of war. See, now you’re in that cursed situation.

Does anyone want kungfu fighting?

From a local newspaper:
Ex-MCA assemblyman admits to 'snoop squad'.

So, does this group together with the mastermind is the people behind the making of Chua SL’s famous sexual acts.

So after MCA’s humiliating defeat, everyone come out with their precious swords and kungfu to backstab each other. How are they going to get the trust from the people again as the MPs or DUNs. In fact, even if they manage a huge victory, they can’t do much for the people due to their nobleness to UMNO. While the internal struggles continue, then it is never too late to convey the people’s sorry to the hopeful MCA supporters, for the future is coming to an end for MCA.

Antidot to Natives is Proper Education

Read this article in Malaysia Today.

This is another form of discrimination and mishandling of justice to the people of Sabah. This incident shows how the local people can be treated like stray dogs even though they hold the rights to the lands. And the reason to this is due to lack of education.

That’s why all the while it is a very smart strategy of government to keep some of the people in Sabah and Sarawak from proper education so that BN can control them at anytime. Simple, without proper education, these group of people can hardly fight or resist them over their policy, so called development process. They don’t have access or understand the procedures to fight back, and as the result been the victims of exploitation if no one help them.

Go back to education topic, how can we expect local kids to excel in a school when most of their fearful teachers don’t have passions and understand the culture of the natives in both states? Believe it or not, it’s a very ridiculous believes of some Peninsular Malaysians after 50 years of independence to say that most of Sabahans and Sarawakians are still staying in the trees, and the head hunting culture still exist until now. The people found out this from a few concern parents who sent their undergrad kids to UNIMAS, a few years ago. When teachers from Peninsular come to teach in rural area, perhaps the incentives from government are the most that blink in their minds. Remember, teachers from Sabah and Sarawak teaching in Peninsular doesn’t really get the same incentives compare to their counterparts from the other side teaching in Sabah and Sarawak. So ladies and gentlemen, aren’t this a form of discrimination by the Federal government to Sabahans and Sarawakians in civil service sector? If money is the driving factor for some of these teachers, perhaps their sincerity to teach the local kids in rural areas is questionable. It’s better still if the government just to put passionate local teachers, born and raised locally in these places to teach the local kids.

Not long ago, Datuk Douglas Uggah (News from Borneo Post) challenged a local school to have their UPSR passing rate increased. It’s not the problem of the school all along. See for yourself, the syllabus also. Our Education Ministry keeps on revising syllabus for instance introducing English in certain subjects to replace the previous. You can’t expect the rural kids to master English in short time compare to city kids. So, by the time the students in these places are familiar with the syllabus, who knows a new syllabus has been revised by Education Ministry to replace the current one. After all, it’s not the school’s fault; the blame is on the Education Ministry too.

In fact, the awareness of the parents of these kids in rural areas should play an important role to encourage their kids to excel as high as possible in education. Its not just about the mentality of kais pagi makan pagi kais petang makan petang anymore. In today’s world, an education scroll is one of the relics to survive. Many Chinese parents in the past were aware of the importance of education that they were willing to endure hardships without putting their dependencies on the discriminated government’s schemes for the sake of their kids’ future. Today, many of their kids have succeeded in their professions. Some of these parents might have already gone, but they had created the culture of the importance of education to their next generations. So, for the native parents of these kids, it might too late for themselves now to go back to schools but they can still set far visions to see their kids live a better and smarter life through better education. Regardless of issues to syllabus revisions or impassionate teachers, encouragement is most important to the kids to never give up, because the gold of success is waiting for them at the door. For sure, with better education, they will be wiser to compete with the rest, in a world full of challenges and uncertainties. To the corrupted government, watch out for these smarter native generations of future, for they are no longer the bullied targets.