Sarawak Land Robbing Cowgate

By Burak S. Sem, Senior Correspondent

Ladies & Gentlement,

I read in FMT, Alfred Jabu answered YB Violet Yong, “do not import Datuk Sahrizat’s cowgate scandal” in his proposal to make Sarawak to become a beef exporter and be self-sufficient in beef through SEDC. In my opinion, Alfred Jabu is right when saying that, because Datuk Sahrizat cowgate scandal swindled RM250 million from the state coffer for his family luxuries is going to be different compared to Taib Mahmud/SEDC scandal. You can imagine, to build an industrial cattle farming require at least few thousand hacters/acres of lands, but where the hell does Alfred Jabu going to get this size of lands for the cattle farm?

Before I could go any further with the above questioned, I want you to know that I am not a political scientist; neither am I a politician nor lawyer. Burak Sem is I am, a simple offshore worker, earning my living through hard labor day-in-day-out. There’s nothing better I could think of in the event I quit this profession.

Nonetheless, working at offshore rig is always exposed to high risks. Our working environment is within high level of hydrocarbons. That is the reason why we enforced high level safety measures, we create policies, learning points and procedures to prevent us to fall in any forms of accidents. We prioritized safety in every aspect of our activities. Anyone of us who are caught breaking our safety rules are request to pack their belongings and home for good. You may ask, why it is so stringent? Well,…breaking safety rules mean putting someone else life at risk. That’s the pattern of lives working on offshore drilling rig.     

Or, maybe you may ask, how the heck do I know about Sarawak ministers, politics and corruptions while living few thousand nautical miles isolated at offshore Brazil? If you may have this question about my comments, let me share with you how I defined political corruption in a simple analysis verses the political pattern of this country works.

To begin with, the forms of corruption are diverse in terms of who are the actors, initiators and profiteers, how it is done, and to what extent it is practiced. Also the causes and the consequences of corruption are complex and diverse, and have been sought in both individual ethics and civic cultures, in history and tradition, in the economic system, in the institutional arrangements, and in the political system, the pattern of corruptions work systematically as follows:-

1.         Actor

Alfred Jabu, who happen to be Dayak, though to have perfect influences among the Iban/Dayak,

2.        Initiator

SEDC – Taib Mahmud’s financier - piggy bank,

3.        Profiteers

Taib Mahmud and his family members.

         

If you are in double in what I’ve mentioned, look at the main actor (Alfred Jabu) himself, he has in planned to make business as usual, create another controversial recipes, add more “spices and herbs” in his speeches to influence the Dayaks to surrender their NCR lands that will not benefit them.   

Land robbing is the only solution to begin with. Telling the Dayaks people their NCR lands are state lands and entertaining the Dayaks with empty promises to surrender their lands. As matter of fact, people with the right minds are not new to this misleading policy. If Alfred Jabu is to work in oild & gas company, he may be fired from job long time ago. That’s to say, Alfred Jabu is dangerous monster – putting people’s lives at risk. If he is serious to bring about major developments, he should look at his own backyard in his Layar constituency, where his people are without the basic necessities such as electricity, treated water, good road.      

Nonetheless, the real devil behind the scene is the Profiteer, none other than the “old goat father” Taib Mahmud and his family members who struggles “tooth and nail” to win more businesses for themselves through actor (Alfred Jabu) and initiator (SEDC).

It is the same pattern they are doing in proposing of the Baram dam, engaging another “no-brain actors” as Lihan Jok, Temengong Pahang, Alfred Jabu, Initiator is SEDC and the Profiteer is Taib Mahmud and his family members (CMS). 

The worse hit victims, the losers are the Dayak people especially the the Kayan Kenyah, Kelabit, Penan etc, because all what they had are directly benefiting the Profiteer in the name of development.

Everyone knows what political manipulation is, but it is notoriously hard to define when ones at desperate situations to earn quick cash are the victims. Different cultures and mentalities have different conceptions of corruption: what would be considered corruption and manipulation among the urban people might be seen as simply polite among the people in rural areas.

Business monopoly implanted to the Sarawak with Barisan National’s colonial policies. Barisan National and their minister’s companies are granted exclusive contracts for these works by the colonial administrations. Even after the American Revolution, many of these colonial holdovers still functioned due to the contracts and land they held.
Monopoly is the extreme case of power abuses and corruptions. It is characterized by a lack of competition, which means only the ministers and their family members are the major owners of multibillion ringgit projects.

Before speaks out his mind on the new project to so call to benefit the people, he should ask himself, how many of his colleagues ministers and their family members are not implicated in corruption? I am sorry to say, there’s none, there is no sanest ministers in Sarawak so far.

Many Sarawakians (especially the Dayaks) are upset over the robbing, snatching up their lands of their lands in the name of “government developments”.

I will admit that we are literally selling our souls to every promise given to us by Alfred Jabu, and if this trend should continue in that trajectory there will be nothing left for the future generations.

When Alfred Jabu told YB Violet Yong, “do not import Datuk Sharizat’s cowgate scandal” into Sarawak. What Alfred Jabu try to say is that Taib Mahmud new scandal is going to be known as “Land Robbing Cowgate”.

Ladies & gentlemen, I’d listened to several promises by Alfred Jabu, since I was in my younger days. My young mind thought, after listening to him; that we are headed to being a very prosperous nation. I’ve grown up…nothing changed…in truth…the state of Sarawak has gotten worse. Alfred Jabu will be an Illusion of Prosperity to the Dayaks…the success of imagined projects…and his delusion of progress.

We must exert efforts to search for the truth on our own, and not merely rely on what some stupid deputy chief minister tells us. If we Sarawakians especially we Dayak blindly believe everything, I don’t think we even deserve civilization.