Panglima Katak

Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has described some of our YBs as “superficial” who are only interested in attending non-beneficial functions and issuing statements just to have their faces appear in newspapers.

“When I read newspapers, I found news of such YBs attending opening of restaurants, boutiques and other commercial functions such as cutting ribbons and having dinners.

“When internal conflicts happened, such YBs even asked their supporters to hold press conferences in coffee shops to pledge support and confidence.

“These YBs would bring the same supporters to their numerous functions to highlight and promote themselves,” said the MP for Santubong.

He said: “When giving aid, these YBs would give the impression it was because of their sole effort that the community received their donations. I find this to be very superficial.”

Wan Junaidi said that such antics were not good for the Barisan Nasional especially the government which was trying to win back the people’s confidence.

He suggested that they must be replaced in the coming election.

Last year Wan Junaidi said that Sarawak MPs did not take part in debates in Parliament. They only sat down and listened to debates, while some were having coffee in Parliament.

He said that they did not raise issues affecting the people of Sarawak.

Meanwhile, the independent state assemblyman for Engkilili Johnichal Rayong about weeks ago described pensioners, members of the public and others who talked in coffee shops criticising the government as “Panglima kedai kopi”.

They were really “Panglima kedai kopi” who knew how to talk and criticise YBs and the government.

But one pensioner hit back at Rayong proclaiming him as “Panglima katak (frog)” who jumped from one party to another.

“How can we trust this type of YB who is interested only in his own personal interest and ego?” he said.

“Of course in Barisan, YBs can enjoy all the facilities, the reputation, the money and can even afford to have two or three wives and girl friends,” he said

“They are the real Panglima Katak and superficial YBs,” he added. - The Broken Shield

Is Adit serious in forming a new party?

Gabriel Adit (pic above), State assemblyman for Ngemah and a leader of Sarawak PKR has been rumoured to be the leader of the rumoured formation of the new party, Pakatan Rakyat Malaysia, a supposedly a multi-racial party.

Many do not take him seriously judging by the conflicting statements he made to the Press in Sibu on Wednesday night during which he was to announce the protem office-bearers. Apparently he could not announce the names of the protem office-bearers when the response to the gathering was only a small group of 40 people. Here again, the majority of those present were his supporters from Ngemah.

He would have expected hundreds of people to come after he made telephone calls to many of his colleagues in PKR as well as to those ex-PBDS members who have remained partyless for the past five years or so. But these people either took him lightly or did not want to join him.

In his statement to The Borneo Post, he said the gathering in Sibu had nothing to do with the formation of PRM; it was to form a committee in preparation for the next state election.

To a question about his future in Keadilan, he said: “Today (Wednesday) I am still a PKR man. I don’t know about tomorrow. You will have to ask me again tomorrow.”

In The Eastern Times, Adit said: “When it is time, I will make the announcement. I will alert the Press.”

Some of those who are close to Adit say that he is leaving for Kuala Lumpur on 11 October presumably to hand over the application to form PRM to the Registrar of Societies and he should be back on 15 October and if every thing goes well to announce the formation of the new party.

He has even told a friend to ready a banner with the words “Welcome Adit, the PRM leader to Sarawak”.

Adit was said to have told a few close friends that the constitution and the logo of the party have been ready for some time. He said he has a “big” sponsor for the party, someone who is close to the corridors of power in Kuala Lumpur.

“Definitely, he is not Sng Chee Hua,” he said.

“This time it is not Sng Chee Hua. You believe me,” he assured his friends.

Many of his friends have been taken by surprise when Adit’s name was mentioned to be the leader of the new party. Because all this while, we have heard him bringing a “few thousands of my supporters” to join PKR and that he spoke among the loudest of all the PKR leaders in Sarawak. “Help PKR to get rid of Taib,” he often said. He is known to be an ardent member of PKR.

I am reminded of what my brother told me that we must be wary of those politicians who speak the loudest, the longest and the most critical, because they will be the ones who will become the first to become “political frogs”. My brother was referring to Johnichal Rayong, the SNAP state assemblyman for Engkilili when he was about to “jump frog” to SPDP in 2006.

I told my brother “cannot be, as he was the one who spoke the loudest, the longest and the most critical against Alfred Jabu at Kaki Wong in Betong before the State election.” So he replied: “We must be wary of those who speak the loudest, the longest and the most critical.” It seems that my brother has been proved right once again. (Sorry to digress a bit.)

But one may ask why is Adit making a 360-degree turn? I was told he met Anwar Ibrahim, the de facto leader of Parti Keadilan Rakyat recently. He was reported to have told Anwar that if Pakatan Rakyat were to topple the state government, then they have to need a large sum of money for each constituency.

“What large money, rupiah?” Anwar jokingly asked him. Anwar’s reply and how Anwar treated him all this while made him angry and said to a friend: “Ila asai, tetudok iya ila.”

Anwar does not see any leadership quality in Adit especially after an incident at the Crown Tower when he was drunk and came to the stage to utter very unpleasant words regarding remarks about 'drinking ribena'. PKR President Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was there. Daniel Tajem was the guest of honour. – The Broken Shield

Source: www.thebrokenshield.blogspot.com

News and Views: Crab and snail mentality

Henry Harry Jinep, a Bidayuh intellectual and entrepreneur, spoke of crab mentality among the Bidayuhs, saying that the Bidayuhs had no one to blame, but their crab mentality of pulling down those on top when they lost a representation in the federal cabinet.

The community lost a federal cabinet post of deputy minister when Tiki Lafe was not reappointed as a result of the ”community’s internal politicking to pull him down.”

The politicking against Tiki was so bad to the extent that Barisan Nasional leaders feared the community was heading towards disintegration with leaders going separate directions.

“From the first day that Tiki was made a deputy minister, there was a lot of politicking to pull him down or to ensure that he would not go up again,” he said.

The crab mentality reminds me of a woman selling two types of snails in a market. A man came enquiring what was the woman selling. Replying the woman said she was selling snails. The man looked into an open pail and asked what was inside the other pail that was covered. The woman said both pails contained snails. Curious the man asked again why she needed to cover the pail.

The woman said that she was selling two types of snails. The one side the covered pail was the “town” snails and it must be covered, because if one of the snails escaped, it would pull up the rest so that they all would escape. The other pail was open, because if one snail tried to escape, the rest would pull it down, so that nobody would escape.

Is there any similarity to the crab mentality of the Bidayuhs as mentioned by Henry Harry Jinep?


Financial grants to small-scale pepper cultivation

The Ministry of Plantation, Industries and Commodity has allocated a grant of RM4.09 million to encourage pepper cultivation among small-scale farmers in Sibu, Kanowit and Selangau.

The allocation has been channeled through the productivity and income enhancement programme for pepper smallholders, said Nangka Awang Bemee Awang Ali Basah.

He was speaking at the launch of a three-day pepper production and marketing technology course in Sibu. Forty participants from Sibu attended the course organized by the Malaysian Pepper Board Sibu branch.

Due to low prices of pepper and high costs of production, Sarawak has slipped into fourth position in the production of pepper in the world after Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia. Decades ago Sarawak occupied top position.

In order to stimulate the pepper industry the Ministry of Plantation, Industries and Commodity should extend such grants to farmers in other division, so that Sarawak farmers can produce from the current production of 4,000 to 10,000 metric tonnes by 2020.

We know in the past the government did not really care about the problems faced by the farmers otherwise Sarawak would not have fallen into poor fourth position. Incentives should have been given as the government did to oil palm smallholders.

It is suggested that the government should buy back both black and white pepper say at RM700 per ton for black and RM1200 per ton for white. In this way the pepper prices will not only be stabilized but will not go down below the government prices.

But has the government the political will to do it? – The Broken Shield

(See SNAP story from Malaysiakini below)

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Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/102542

Snap at it again: No 2 vs No 1

The latest crisis in the Sarawak National Party (Snap) is reaching a point of no return with Ting Ling Kiew, its deputy president, threatening to sue the party leadership if they pursue with their show-cause letter against him.

“I have not received the letter and I do not know what the contents and the allegations against me,” he said when contacted today.

“Tell them, they should withdraw the show-cause letter. Otherwise they will feel sorry for their actions. Don’t play with me. I will sue them,” he warned.

Ting accused Edwin Dundang, Snap president and Stanley Jugol, its secretary general, of not following procedures when they called an emergency meeting to discuss the show-cause letter, alleging that there was no notice of meeting and there were no text messages to the members.

“How can they do this?” he asked.

Snap had sent the show-cause letter to Ting and Augustine Sating, appointed vice- president and a CEC member.

It is understood that the allegation against Ting was that he was 'selling' the party to the Barisan Nasional when he met the newly elected Umno president and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak early this month. He did not consult the CEC members.

For Sating, he was given the show-cause letter because he campaigned for the BN candidate Malcolm Mussen Lamoh against Jawah Gerang of PKR during the Batang Ai by-election. The Snap leadership had earlier declared its solidarity with Pakatan Rakyat and PKR.

The show-cause letters which give them 30 days to reply will expire on May 6 . But sources close to the party leadership did not expect the duo to reply to the show-cause letters.

It is said that the dispute in the party started to flare up when Dundang and his deputy Ting did not see eye to eye on the Batang Ai by-election. While Ting wanted Snap to contest the by-election, Dundang and Jugol insisted on supporting the PKR candidate Jawah Gerang.


Disagreement over Batang Ai

According to Ting, he was directed by the president to form a committee to gauge whether the party should contest in the by-election.

“After I formed the committee, suddenly I found out that the president and secretary-general threw their support to PKR and Jawah and insisted that Snap would not be contesting” he said.
Ting said he was furious that Snap had aligned itself with PKR as he saw no future for the party in PKR and called for an emergency CEC meeting. According to him, all members attended, except Dundang and Jugol, as they were campaigning for Jawah in Batang Ai.

The meeting agreed that Ting should see the newly elected Umno president and convey the party’s support for his leadership.

Ting had said that he did this for the love of the party. “We want to save the party and we don’t want to leave the BN.”

He also sought Najib’s help to resolve Snap’s problem with the Registrar of Societies which had de-registered the party on November 5, 2002. Snap has been granted a stay of execution pending an appeal.

In 2002, the party faced a similar leadership crisis between the then president James Wong and his deputy Peter Tinggom and eight other CEC members, resulting in the de-registration of the party and the formation of Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party now led by William Mawan.

In 1983, Snap faced its first major leadership crisis, also involving the then president James Wong and a team of Dayak leaders, led by Leo Moggie and Daniel Tajem. Moggie fought Wong for the party’s presidency but lost. Together with Tajem, Moggie founded Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak the same year.

Virtually reduced to a skeleton today, the party which can take pride in producing Sarawak’s first chief minister Stephen Kalong Nngkan is slipping further down the road of oblivion.

Masing the leader of the ‘turncoats’?

In the 1980s, both James Masing (right) and Leo Moggie

were very critical of Abdul Taib's policies when they were still in PBDS.

Can we describe them as "turncoats" too?

President of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) James Masing has accused a group of people who once were with the government now are actively opposing it.

Describing them as ‘turncoats’ Masing said he was disappointed by these highly educated people who were former elected representatives and government retirees.

“The people are confused because when these same people were serving the BN government, they were saying many nice and good rosy things about BN and encouraging people to support BN.

“Today these turncoats are saying all the bad things about the government, dragging people here and there to follow their own personal political agenda,” Masing who is the Land Development minister said. (A turncoat, according to Reader’s Digest Oxford dictionary, is a person who changes sides in a conflict, dispute, etc.; renegade, traitor, betrayer, deserter, defector, backslider, snake in the grass, etc.)

I would have thought Masing himself was/is a turncoat. In 1983 he contested as a PBDS candidate and won the Baleh seat. PBDS joined the state BN government plus. In 1987 he and PBDS joined the Maju group to topple Abdul Taib Government. In 1991 when PBDS was severely defeated, Masing and PBDS applied to rejoin the State BN. Upon rejoining the State BN in 1995, Masing was initially appointed an assistant minister.

Like Masing, government retirees have their own reasons for being turncoats. When serving the government, they must be loyal to the government of the day, observe the general orders and other government regulations. They cannot have their personal agenda otherwise they must resign.

When they become retirees or pensioners, they are free to express their views either for or against the government. As a matter of fact almost 90% of them are critical of the government policies. Why?

Firstly, they could have been marginalised or sidelined in terms of promotion, because they did not know how to do the apple polishing of their bosses.

Secondly, they knew too well government policies that are detrimental to the survival of their people back in the longhouses. For example the policy on Native Customary Rights (NCR) land development when the authorities declared NCR land as state land and sell them to cronies of the powers-that-be and to big companies for oil palm plantations, they cannot stand idle. Their forefathers’ lands have being taken away from their families, their fruit trees and their crops destroyed.

So they better become “turncoats” and do something to defend the land. Some longhouse people will surely follow them because as government pensioners they know what is right and what is wrong. - The Broken Shield

Source: www.thebrokenshield.blogspot.com

Double-frogged politicians: Who were the first?

When Bota assemblyman Nasarudin Hashim defected to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and 10 days later rejoined UMNO, some people claimed that he was the first double-frogged politician.

That is not true. I believe the first double-frogged politician was “born” in Sarawak. It was in Sarawak where this culture of double-frogging began when Ulu Rajang MP Justine Jinggut elected unopposed on a SNAP ticket in the 1982 parliamentary election defected to Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) in 1983. In 1986, he contested on a PBDS ticket and won with a big majority. He leap-frogged back to SNAP before 1987. In 1990 he stood again on a SNAP ticket and was soundly defeated by Billy Abit Joo of PBDS.

Before the State election in April 1987, 28 State assemblymen resigned from their parties to defect to PBDS and Persatuan Rakyat Malaysia Sarawak (Permas).*

Those from Sarawak National Party (SNAP) joined Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and they were SNAP deputy president Edward Jeli, SNAP secretary general Joseph Balan Seling, SNAP vice president Michael Ben Anak Panggi and SNAP CEC member Geman Anak Itam. Their defections prompted Sarawak’s Chief Minster Abdul Taib Mahmud to call for a fresh election which was held on 15 and 16 April 1987.

PBDS won 15 seats, while Permas won only five seats. Edward Jeli, Geman Anak Itam, Balan Seling and Michael Ben won with big majorities in their respective constituencies. On 14 July 1987, Edward Jeli and Geman leap-frogged back to SNAP, while Balan and Michael Ben hopped to PBB. Sora Anak Rosah defected from PBDS to PBB.

PBDS seats were further reduced to seven when months later Gramong Juna, Mikai Mandau and Bolhassan Kambar defected to PBB.

Sarawak has seen many political frogs since independence, the majority of them were Dayak politicians; and among the first were Nelson Kundai Ngarieng and Stephen Ngelambong from SNAP to PBB, Simon Dembab Maja and Penghulu Abok Anak Jalin from Pesaka to PBB in 1970. Years later Serian MP Richard Riot resigned from PBDS and defected to SUPP.

After partyless for some time, Jawah Gerang joined Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and after only a few months he hopped to Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS).

As for Johnichal Rayong who contested on a SNAP ticket in the Engkilili state seat secretly joined SPDP, and following the objection of other BN parties, he wanted to leap-frog to SUPP and his acceptance in SUPP should be announced before June 2008. Until today his application to be a political frog is put on hold. Nevertheless, he behaves like one of them.

The ugly culture of political frogs will not only promote the evil of corruption, but it is also the betrayal of the worst kind to those people who voted for them. Unless the government does something such as introducing the anti-hopping law, political frogs will breed more political frogs, and we as Dayaks should support this law as the majority of political frogs come from our community.

But the question is: Why are Dayak politicians so easily succumbed to temptation to become political frogs and to forsake their honour (if they have any way), the honour of their family and their generation to come? - The Broken Shield

* Reference: The Broken Shield – The Birth of Dayakism

Sarawak the Land of "Hornbills and Frogs"?

When Dr. James Masing commented that no BN members of parliament from Sarawak would jump over to the Opposition as “political frogs” and described Sarawak as “Bumi Kenyalang” (the land of the hornbills), and not “Bumi Kataks” (the land of the frogs) he was not quite right. In fact Sarawak and Sabah were once the “lands of the frogs”.

PBS government was toppled because some of its elected members leap-frogged to the Barisan. In Sarawak we have several “political frogs” and one of the most unforgettable episodes was after the Ming Court affair. According to a book, The Broken Shield (page 149), seven PBDS’ newly elected assemblymen turned “frogs” when they joined SNAP and PBB, reducing its elected representatives to eight only. Since then, PBDS never recovered its strength. Finally PBDS was deregistered on 21 October 2004 due to leadership crisis, when some of its members turned “frogs” following the demise of the party.

At the time when they leap-frogged, they were considered as “heroes” by the BN leadership and their jumping over was “in the interest of the people”. But to the PBDS supporters, they were “traitors”.

Now is Masing right to say that Sarawak is “Bumi Kenyalang” and not “Bumi Kataks”? To me Sarawak is both “Bumi Kenyalang” and “Bumi Kataks”. Sarawak is indeed a multi-racial State made up of “hornbills and frogs”. After all, the “political frogs” are still alive and they have their descendents.

What do you think?