I have just returned from a four-day visit to Sarawak, and wherever I went, whether Kuching, Bintulu, Miri or Sibu, there was a palpable sense of joy and a new air of freedom among the people as a result of last month’s Sarawak state general elections which had ushered in a new era of democracy in the state.
It is no exaggeration to say that there seems to be a springtime of freedom in Sarawak after two decades of “winter of discontent”.
The election of three DAP State Assemblymen and two Independents is a clear signal that the people of Sarawak want a check-and-balance to the Sarawak state government to curb abuses and excesses of power as well as unfair and discriminatory legislation.
One such unfair and discriminatory legislation which has caused widespread opposition and alienation against the Barisan Nasional Sarawak state government is the latest compulsory land acquisition powers under the Sarawak Land Code, where private land could be acquired by the State Government not for “public purpose” but for private development by select companies or individuals.
DAP calls on the Sarawak State Government to immediately to freeze all compulsory land acquisitions for private development in the state until amendments have been made to the Sarawak Land Code, in the same manner that the Federal Government has frozen compulsory land acquisitions for “private development” in Peninsular Malaysia until amendments to the Land Acquisition Act had been presented to Parliament and enacted into law.
It is a gross injustice to deprive private landowners of their land, not for “public purpose” development as building schools or hospitals, but for “private development” by select private companies or individuals, giving the landowners not only ridiculously low compensation but denying them the right to develop their own land!
There are many other issues in Sarawak which had caused the loss of five state assembly seats to the Sarawak Barisan Nasional in last month’s state general elections, including the issue of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land of the Ibans, money politics, the Bakun dam project, housing and just and equitable development for all Sarawakians.
These are the issues which should be in the forefront of concern of all newly-elected State Assemblymen in Sarawak, and this is why the Sarawak DAP has announced that it would be organising a Sarawak State Assembly People’s Consultative Convention in Sibu on November 2 and 3 to seek the views of all cross-sections of the Sarawak people as to the issues which should be high on the agenda of the new Sarawak State Assembly elected on Sept. 8.
The Sarawak Barisan Nasional Government should be doing the same thing, to involve the people of Sarawak in the decision-making process in the new Sarawak State Assembly, so as to give greater meaning to participatory democracy in Sarawak.
Unfortunately, there are Sarawak Barisan Nasional leaders who seem more interested in pursuing petty and vindictive matters to vent their spleen for their party’s defeats and reverses in the Sarawak state general elections, instead of accepting the verdict of the electorate and find out how they could best serve them. Instead of finding out why they had been rejected by the voters, they prefer to finds “scapegoats” for their defeat and to think of ways of “punishing” the electorate for exercising their democratic right to elect the Assemblyman of their choice.
One such example is the unfair, undemocratic and vindictive campaign launched by the SUPP leadership to boycott Borneo Post, See Hua Daily News and See Hua Evening News blaming them for the SUPP defeats in the Sarawak state general elections, and in particular, the defeat of the SUPP President, Tan Sri Dr. Wong Soon Kai.
The SUPP leadership, particularly the new Deputy Chief Minister, Datuk Dr. George Chan, may regard it as a great personal achievement that they had succeeded in getting the Sarawak State Government to support the SUPP’s boycott campaign against the See Hua Group of newspapers - failing to realise that this is in fact a gross abuse of power and grave breach of trust by the Sarawak State Government which has no business to get involved in the SUPP boycott campaign! DAP to move an urgent motion in Parliament on the SUPP and Sarawak State Government boycott of Borneo Post, See Hua Daily News and Sin Hua Evening News
In dragging the Sarawak State Government into its unfair, undemocratic and vindictive boycott campaign, the SUPP leadership is doing the Sarawak State Government a great disservice by portraying the Sarawak State Government as a irresponsible and oppressive government and a major threat to press freedom.
It is not only Sarawakians but Malaysians as a whole who must be concerned about the Sarawak State Government’s involvement in the SUPP campaign against press freedom, for Malaysians cannot speak loud and clear about press freedom, democracy and human rights in international forums when there is a state government which is in the very forefront in acting against press freedom just because one of its component parties lost three state assembly seats to the Opposition in the recent state general elections.
It is for this reason that I will be notifying the Speaker, Tan Sri Zahir Ismail, that the DAP will move an urgent motion on the threat to press freedom in Malaysia posed by the Sarawak State Government and SUPP when Parliament reconvenes on October 14.
(4/10/96)