Dayak DAP State Assemblymen will demand a full explanation by Sarawak Barisan National Government the reasons for 53 years of development backwardness and failures in Sarawak and to give a final warning that DAP Sarawak State Government will take over in 2021 unless there is meaningful remedy of these basic failures.

This will undoubtedly be the main thrust of the agenda of Dayak DAP State Assemblymen elected on Saturday on May 7 when they take their place in the Sarawak State Assembly.

I have visited more than a dozen Dayak constituencies in the past two weeks – including Mulu, Marudi, Tasik Biru, Mambong, Bukit Semuja, Kedup, Simanggang, Krian, Pakan, Bukit Goram, Katibas and Ngemah, and will visit Samalaju, Kemena and Murum.

I find the tour of the Dayak constituencies most enriching and eye-opening experience, learning not only about Dayak hospitality, the rich cultures and even the long history of the Dayaks – over a hundred years of the Kelabit high-achievers in Bario and the some two centuries of the Bidayuh in Bau surroundings – but I am also shocked by the backwardness of many Dayak communities, especially in terms of basic infrastructures and basic human needs which are not being met.

I was in Kapit and Song the last 24 hours and it is most shocking that although the multibillion-ringgit Bakun Dam is in the Kapit Division, the majority of the long-houses in the three districts in the area – Song, Kapit and Pelagus – do not enjoy electricity let alone piped water.

A DAP Sarawak State Government will ensure that the longhouses in the Kapit Division of Song, Kapit and Pelagus districts will enjoy electricity in view of the vicinity of the multibillion ringgit Bakun Dam project. Why can’t the Barisan Nasional government do the same thing? Read the rest of this entry »

Two issues in the 11th Sarawak state general election on May 7 are already decided – that Tan Sri Adenan Satem will be the Sarawak Chief Minister for the next five years and that the Sarawak Barisan Nasional will form the next Sarawak State Government.

The real issue about the Sarawak State Assembly to be decided on Sarawak Polling Day is whether there is going to be a strong, effective and principled Opposition grouping in the Sarawak State Assembly to ensure three things: (i) that Adenan keeps his election promises to serve the people; (ii) Adenan does not abuse his powers as Chief Minister; and (3) to prepare for a new non-Sarawak BN government in five years’ time in the next Sarawak state general election in 2021.

With the situation very clear that Adenan will be the Sarawak Chief Minister for the next five years with Sarawak Barisan Nasional as the State Government, the most ideal result of the May 7 Polling is for the denial of Adenan’s two-thirds majority in the State Assembly which is the best safeguard to protect the rights and interests of Sarawakians.

However, I do not think this is likely to be achieved on Polling Day on Saturday as I do not see the signs that the Opposition collectively will be able to win 28 State Assembly seats, the “magic figure” to deny Adenan two-thirds majority in the 82-seat Sarawak State Assembly.

I hope more than 20 Opposition State Assembly representatives could be elected on May 7, which would be a resounding setback for the many high-handed actions taken by the Sarawak Barisan Nasional in the election campaign, aimed at reducing the DAP to a “mosquito” presence of about half-a-dozen seats in the State Assembly. Read the rest of this entry »

It is time for the Katibas voters to have a young, dedicated and idealistic State Assemblyman instead of a seven-term incumbent, Datuk Ambrose Blikau, who became Assemblyman even before the DAP candidate Paren Nyawi was born and could not build the road from Song to Kapit and Kanowit after more than three decades as government representative for the area.

Before the formation of Malaysia, numerous fact-finding missions from Sarawak visited Peninsular Malaysia and were promised that if Sarawak, together with Sabah and Singapore, agreed to form Malaysia, the people of Sarawak particularly in the rural areas could expect a standard of development and living comparable to those in the rural areas in the peninsula.

We now have the third generation of Sarawakians, after 53 years of the formation of Malaysia, but the promises made in the early sixties have still to be fulfilled or the road from Song to Kapit and from Song to Kanowit would have been completed one generation or two ago. Read the rest of this entry »