Finally, an expose on what is going on in Sarawak. I thank Global Witness for putting the spotlight on the utter contempt the current rulers of Sarawak rule the state with.
I wrote this the couple of words below months and months ago, but never posted because, well, I never really perfected it, and the timing always wasn't right.
Now with this piece appearing in the likes of international news outlets I can only hope that the story continues to spread like wildfire, and the Federal government will be shamed into doing something.
It might be imperfect, and I have so much more to say, but here it is:
I am no political activist, but I read and I watch the news and am a big follower of Malaysiakini.
The roads that link Miri, its northernmost "city" (and the oil and gas hub of the state) to Bintulu, its industrial hub and home to one of the largest LNG plants in the world (processing some ~8% of Malaysia's GDP right there) are nothing more than poorly constructed roads that even the worst municipals here in the Klang Valley would be downright embarassed with. When it rains (and boy it does during the monsoon), gaping holes emerge due to bad construction. There are no emergency phones for one to use when stranded, no highway patrols to come to one's rescue should your car break down anytime throughout this hundred-kilometer journey. Heck, there aren't even any streetlights or reflectors.
Yes, the news we read everyday about a certain self-designated First Lady and her shopping sprees, the Scorpene submarines fiasco, PKFZ, and Lynas frustrate and worry us. But for the most part we go on with our lives. And let's face it, for most of us, our lives are (for now anyway) unaffected by the corruption in our government
But not in the case of Sarawak, where corruption has resulted in abject poverty for its citizens. Take a drive in Miri. Barely a few hundred metres away from the colonial-styled expatriate housing for RDS staff you will find squatters with their houses patched from zinc and planks. Drive towards the beach in Luak and you will, I guarantee, gawk at the palace-like houses of the timber tycoons. Miri's only Lamborghini is driven by one of their sons. Yet the companies balk at raising the minimum wage of its workers from RM400 to RM800 per day. Which Malaysian lives on RM400 a month these days? Well, timber workers do.
Sarawak is not Malaysia. Here in the Peninsular we have highways, decent if under-capacity public transport, and a comparitively louder, if sometimes ineffective voice of opposition - whether it's in the form of protesting the opening of a rare-earths processing plant, a rally for free elections, or the opposition political parties having their say.
In Sarawak, there is a deafening silence as the beat goes on. The Chief Minister halts the flow of new businesses into the state, lest its loosens his and his cronies' dominance over the local economy. Education is stifled (or left to nothing, which for someone in a Chief Minister's position is unforgiveable). In the meantime, the forests are pillaged, the people exploited, their ancestral land and way of life give way to modern day exploitation and poverty. Don't think slumdog millionare is only a story or Mumbai or India for that matter. Think only the Philippines has children digging through garbage for sustenance? We see that every day in Sarawak, a land so rich in oil and gas and timber and fertile soil. A land with a UNESCO world heritage site in its Mulu caves.
Sarawak is not Malaysia. It's a dictatorship, plain and simple, with only a select few benefiting from the vast riches of the state, while the rest not only barely scrape by, but are constantly exploited, abused and neglected.
The Marcoses were overthrown, but this Minister has stood the test of time. Sarawak stands on its own, isolated, its people kept in the dark and wasting away.
It is my hope that the likes of Malaysiakini, the political oppostion, the churches and Christian fellowships (who hold a strong influence in the state), the ketua kampungs, the Sarawakians who have left Sarawak for greener pastures (this accomplished man comes to mind), would come together and reclaim what is fair and just for the people of Sarawak. Because they cannot do it on their own, isolated and beaten down as they are. I pray that one day the Pope would visit his devotees in Sarawak and publicly rebuke the Chief Minister, just like Pope John Paul II did to Imelda Marcos. These are small things, realistic things that could happen. At the very least, draw some attention. Embarass our Federal Government for allowing this to happen for so many years. A revolution, I am afraid, is too much to ask for.
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor who lost his entire family to the Nazi concentration camps, said this, "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
I wrote this the couple of words below months and months ago, but never posted because, well, I never really perfected it, and the timing always wasn't right.
Now with this piece appearing in the likes of international news outlets I can only hope that the story continues to spread like wildfire, and the Federal government will be shamed into doing something.
It might be imperfect, and I have so much more to say, but here it is:
I am no political activist, but I read and I watch the news and am a big follower of Malaysiakini.
The roads that link Miri, its northernmost "city" (and the oil and gas hub of the state) to Bintulu, its industrial hub and home to one of the largest LNG plants in the world (processing some ~8% of Malaysia's GDP right there) are nothing more than poorly constructed roads that even the worst municipals here in the Klang Valley would be downright embarassed with. When it rains (and boy it does during the monsoon), gaping holes emerge due to bad construction. There are no emergency phones for one to use when stranded, no highway patrols to come to one's rescue should your car break down anytime throughout this hundred-kilometer journey. Heck, there aren't even any streetlights or reflectors.
Yes, the news we read everyday about a certain self-designated First Lady and her shopping sprees, the Scorpene submarines fiasco, PKFZ, and Lynas frustrate and worry us. But for the most part we go on with our lives. And let's face it, for most of us, our lives are (for now anyway) unaffected by the corruption in our government
But not in the case of Sarawak, where corruption has resulted in abject poverty for its citizens. Take a drive in Miri. Barely a few hundred metres away from the colonial-styled expatriate housing for RDS staff you will find squatters with their houses patched from zinc and planks. Drive towards the beach in Luak and you will, I guarantee, gawk at the palace-like houses of the timber tycoons. Miri's only Lamborghini is driven by one of their sons. Yet the companies balk at raising the minimum wage of its workers from RM400 to RM800 per day. Which Malaysian lives on RM400 a month these days? Well, timber workers do.
Sarawak is not Malaysia. Here in the Peninsular we have highways, decent if under-capacity public transport, and a comparitively louder, if sometimes ineffective voice of opposition - whether it's in the form of protesting the opening of a rare-earths processing plant, a rally for free elections, or the opposition political parties having their say.
In Sarawak, there is a deafening silence as the beat goes on. The Chief Minister halts the flow of new businesses into the state, lest its loosens his and his cronies' dominance over the local economy. Education is stifled (or left to nothing, which for someone in a Chief Minister's position is unforgiveable). In the meantime, the forests are pillaged, the people exploited, their ancestral land and way of life give way to modern day exploitation and poverty. Don't think slumdog millionare is only a story or Mumbai or India for that matter. Think only the Philippines has children digging through garbage for sustenance? We see that every day in Sarawak, a land so rich in oil and gas and timber and fertile soil. A land with a UNESCO world heritage site in its Mulu caves.
Sarawak is not Malaysia. It's a dictatorship, plain and simple, with only a select few benefiting from the vast riches of the state, while the rest not only barely scrape by, but are constantly exploited, abused and neglected.
The Marcoses were overthrown, but this Minister has stood the test of time. Sarawak stands on its own, isolated, its people kept in the dark and wasting away.
It is my hope that the likes of Malaysiakini, the political oppostion, the churches and Christian fellowships (who hold a strong influence in the state), the ketua kampungs, the Sarawakians who have left Sarawak for greener pastures (this accomplished man comes to mind), would come together and reclaim what is fair and just for the people of Sarawak. Because they cannot do it on their own, isolated and beaten down as they are. I pray that one day the Pope would visit his devotees in Sarawak and publicly rebuke the Chief Minister, just like Pope John Paul II did to Imelda Marcos. These are small things, realistic things that could happen. At the very least, draw some attention. Embarass our Federal Government for allowing this to happen for so many years. A revolution, I am afraid, is too much to ask for.
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor who lost his entire family to the Nazi concentration camps, said this, "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
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