Snowdan behaves like a gangster

KUCHING: Sarawak PKR wanita chief Ibi anak Uding blasted Snowdan Lawan, the State assemblyman for Balai Ringin for behaving like a gangster attempting to sabotage her function at Kampung Ensebang Kuari, Balai Ringin on Sunday morning (22 Aug 2010).

Ibi had earlier applied for a Police permit to organise the function in conjunction with the visit of PKR supreme council member, Zaid Ibrahim to the village.

She had also applied for the use of the village community hall and approval was given by Tuai Rumah (village chief) Saimi Ribol.

But on Saturday, Ibi was told by the longhouse chief that she could not use the hall as it would be used by Snowdan to organize a day concert with two Iban popular singers.

Ibi moved the function to an adjacent house. She had to borrow some 200 chairs from various people at the longhouse.

When Zaid was about to deliver a speech, Snowdan’s Iban singers began to sing. However, they were advised by the Police to hold on first.

According to Ibi, Snowdan ordered some 50 village headmen to attend his concert, while some 300 people listened to Zaid’s speech.

“This behaviour is disgusting and the behaviour of a gangster,” alleged Ibi, who is a potential candidate to challenge Snowdan for the coming state election.

“He has failed to help the people of Balai Ringin constituency since he was elected in 2006,” she said.

“In order to attract crowd, he has to resort to use Iban singers to attract them, and he has to bribe them to support him” she said, pointing out that type of support was superficial.

Snowdan was alleged to have paid RM2,000 to the JKKK in order to stop PKR from using the community hall.

“Now the people know who Snowdan really is,” Ibi added.

Ibi thanked the Police for maintaining peace and order.

Meanwhile, Zaid talked on how the State BN government had mistreated the people of Balai Ringin – took away their native customary rights land for the planting of oil palm and for the rearing of pigs on a wide scale.

Zaid was referring to the pig farm which had consumed some RM400 million to build it, while the people’s welfare were neglected; they did not have electricity, clean water supply and proper roads.

He also referred to some 741, 000 hectares of NCR land in the Balai Ringin constituency which had been earmarked for oil palm plantation for Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s crony companies.

At Ubah, Pantu, which is part of Snowdan’s constituency, the people’s NCR land had taken away and planted with oil palm without their consent.

The land owners are now suing the company, the Land and survey Department and the state government.

Zaid called on the people to help vote out the Taib government in the coming election if they wanted their NCR land back.

Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan who was present said that he almost went to the wrong place as he had been told the gathering was at the hall. But the hall had been hijacked by Snowdan.

“Now the BN is ‘takut’ (intimidated) by the PKR presence and has resorted to all the dirty tricks to stop the party from meeting the people and from telling the truth,” he said.

More visits will be organised in the future not only in Balai Ringing, but also other constituencies.

Street fighters verses Gangsters and corruptors!

The defeat of the Sarawak United People’s Party at the recently concluded Sibu by-election is too much for the party leaders to accept so much so that they behave like a cry-baby.

And the loss is the more bitter when the party was defeated at its home ground, which it has controlled and “ruled” non-stop for the past 20 years and at the same time it dashed the hope of the so-called visionary team to transform Sibu into a modern city equipped with the first class infrastructure.

And one of the members of the team was Robert Lau Hoi Chew whose death on 9 April sparked of the by-election on 16 May.

In the by-election, SUPP-BN candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew was defeated by DAP-Pakatan candidate Richard Wong Ho Leng by a slim majority of 398 votes.

Hui Yew obtained 18,447 votes as against Ho Leng’s 18,845. In the 2008 parliamentary election Ho Leng was defeated by Hui Chew’s cousin, Robert Lau Hoi Chew by 3235 vote majority.

In reality Ho Leng’s majority should be 3633 votes (3235+398).

SUPP leaders were deeply disappointed with the defeat and they could not take it so much so that they behave like a cry-baby blaming the defeat on the West Malaysian style of politics being introduced into the by-election.

But what SUPP really fear is that the tsunamic effect of the loss may create political waves that may wipe out the seats that the party is holding now such as Pelawan, Bawang Assan (both under the Sibu parliamentary constituency), Dudong, Repok, Batu Kawah, Pujut, Senadin and Piasau (all these Chinese majority seats) and mixed seats like Simanggang, Opar and Bengoh.

It has already lost eight seats including seven Chinese majority seats to the Opposition in the 2006 State election.

And the fear of SUPP becoming a mosquito party is staring them at their face. And the fear is clearly mentioned by its president George Chan when he cautioned that the unexpected loss should serve as a “warning” to all BN component parties to live up to the people’s expectation or risk losing their support.

“Would this reflect on the things to come in the next election? I don’t know. If we look at it from a different angle, what happened in Sibu is definitely a good lesson to SUPP,” he said to reporters.

But in comforting and consoling SUPP, State Barisan Nasional leaders tell its leaders not to worry too much, after all the defeat is a small loss.

“After all, it is a small loss and it will not affect the State election,” said Asfia Awang Nasar, Speaker of State Legislative Assembly.

State Barisan Chairman Taib Mahmud told SUPP that its defeat in Sibu would not reflect the overall support of the majority of the people towards the Barisan Nasional.

James Masing, President of Parti Rakyat Sarawak, agreed that the loss was a small defeat and would not have impact to the BN in the coming state election, because it did not reflect the true support of the people for the Barisan Nasional.

Asking SUPP not to worry too much, Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party President William Mawan Ikom said that the BN would win back the seat in the next general election.

“With the government’s commitment in taking care of the people, we should be able to get back the people’s trust and win back Sibu in the coming general election,” he said.

State BN secretary general Stephen Rundi blamed the defeat on the West Malaysian style of politics being introduced into the State,

“We don’t want this trend to come to Sarawak. And I advise those West Malaysian parties not to instigate this issue (religion) because in Sarawak we believe that Chinese, Ibans, Malays and Melanaus can eat and sit together in the same restaurant,” he said.

Now the question being asked is whether Robert Lau Hui Yew was the right candidate for the by-election knowing he is coming from a very wealthy family. Although SUPP and BN leaders kept quiet about his background during the campaign period, his background became an issue in the by-election.

Many regarded the by-election as the fight between the poor, the neglect and the down-trodden pitted against the rich and the famous.

“You know who his father is?” asked Baru Bian, chairman of PKR Sarawak.

Hui Yew’s father is Lau Swee Nguong, the chairman of KTS group of companies which are involved in timber and timber-related businesses, huge oil palm plantations, in printing and in newspaper business owning The Borneo Post, Utusan Borneo and See Hua Daily News.

“I know his father, because I have two court cases brought against Lau Swee Nguong for allegedly taking away native customary rights land from the Ibans,” said Baru, the NCR land lawyer.

The two cases will be heard very soon, he added.

As we see it, the Sibu by-election was a fight between what Abang Johari said the politics of “street fighters” or a "Taiwanese style" of campaigning of the Opposition as against BN’s gangster’s style of intimidation and corruption.

For example, at Robert Lingga’s longhouse, a group of Barisan Youths came to the longhouse and started shouting and beating empty tins trying to cause disturbances and noises while Opposition leaders were addressing the longhouse folks. The Opposition leaders kept their cool. It was understood they were paid RM300 to cause the disturbances by one MP (cannot name him because he likes to sue people). He walked like a gangster from one end of the longhouse to the other and asked Datuk Seri Daniel Tajem: “Who are you?”

Tajem replied: “I am Datuk Seri Daniel Tajem.” Imagine someone like him who does not know Tajem if not for his sheer arrogance?

The other gangster’s politics practised by BN was the firing of firecrackers that lasted for 20 minutes in Sibu town itself in the evening of 14 May, drowning the voice of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim while he addressed a crowd of 10,000 people. The BN was unhappy when they in the same evening addressed about 500 people. The firing of the firecrackers made thousands of people angry, and because of this, they perhaps voted for the Opposition.

Of course the BN used of money to buy votes, the promise of financial allocations to various projects. If these are not corruption and bribery, what is it then? – The Broken Shield

Source: www.thebrokenshield.blogspot.com