Happy New Yeay 2009

I would like to wish all the readers a Happy New Year 2009.    Let's us forget all the bad things behind and bring forward all the good things with us unto 2009.    In this new year of 2009, may we all have the courage and wisdom to take up all the impossible challenges ahead and also have the strength to conquer new height in our daily lives.

Inconsistent and confusing traffic light flow sequence

This is to highlight the traffic light flow sequence at the junction of Jalan Tanjung Kidurong / Nyabau Road which is inconsistent and very confusing. I do not know how BDA did the programming of the traffic sequence, but one thing for sure, it is CONFUSING.

Normally, the traffic flow from all direction was 1) straight ahead and followed by 2) left turn. However there are times, when the sequence did change. For example, when we travel from hospital to Jalan Tanjung Kidurong, after the straight ahead sequence, it did not turn left, instead, it goes back to the main road again. If you got used to the normal sequence, you’ll surely be confused.

To BDA engineers / technicians, please look into this matter. This problem seems minor, but the after effect could be dangerous and deadly to road users.

House breaking

There has been a frequent incident of house breaking happened of late in Bintulu town. Almost everyday we read reports in newspapers about these incidents. It seems that these crimes were committed by the same criminals, as it involved 3 criminals each time. The modus operandi were the same, after the mission accomplished, they would feast on the food in the kitchen. So, they were termed “hungry house breakers”. My friend made a silly joke. In order to catch these criminals, he suggested that we put signage on our front gate saying “Please rob my house” and put deadly poison in the food.

By the look of it, it seems that these crimes are normal nowadays, it has become part of the daily life of Bintulu residents.

Talking about crime, we should look back at security system within our society. We should conduct an in depth analysis on the subject. Why did that happened? Does our system of security flaws? How efficient is our police? Who are the criminals? The questions goes on and on. It is not whose fault that we should look for. It is the solutions and remedies that we must strive to come up with.

It would be most unfair to put the blame on the inefficiencies of the police alone in fighting crimes. The general public too, must play an important part. The police need to work closely with the public and likewise the public should co-operate closely with them. Only this way, would it be possible to reduce the number of occurrences of house breaking in our town.

Wasted land lots

The land lots at second phase of Sg. Plan resettlement scheme costs around RM13,000.00 to own. This price is exclusive of earth fillings. The house building costs is yet another head cracking expenses, especially so for the medium and low income group owners of that particular land lots.

Amongst the 169 people who were lucky enough to get the land via casting, hardly 20 of them managed to construct their houses as of this date. It is either that they don’t need this land or could not come up with enough funds to settle the land and to build their houses. In fact, there are a lot of people out there who really deserve that small piece of land to build their houses.

According to the terms and conditions of purchase of that particular land lots, owners were given a 6 months period to make full settlement, failing which the land would be withdrawn by BDA and resold to other people. Now that over 3 years has passed by, no action has been taken by BDA to recover that unsettled land lots. From the way it is now, this project was created nothing more than to benefit particular politicians and some influential people.

Whatever it is, it’s another example of a waste of resources and disregards of public interest and rights committed by BDA.

Malfunctioning traffic lights

Excerpt from Bintulu.org news portal

Jepak assemblyman attributes Sarawak economic growth to good leadership

October 20, 2008

“The strong economic growth and development in Sarawak is due the caliber of leadership and good policies implemented by the government said Jepak assemblyman Datuk Zulpilip in his “Hari Raya” open house here yesterday.

The open house held at Kampung Assyakirin were attended by some 1,000 people including Head of State Tun Abang Muhammad Salahuddin and wife Toh Puan Norkiah, government department heads and community leaders from around Bintulu division.

Talip said Sarawak is endowed with rich natural resources but if there is no good government and good policies implemented, such natural resources would not be fully exploited for the benefit of the people.

Citing Bintulu as an example the state assemblyman said there are plenty of job opportunities created in Bintulu that attracted not only people from other Divisions of Sarawak but also from all over the world.

Talip called on the people to continue supporting government efforts for continued development and prosperity.”

This is what I meant in my previous post, (Problems of Unemployment), the one highlighted in red.

Problems of unemployment

Unemployment is a universal and major setbacks of a modern civilisation. Like anywhere else in the world, unemployment rate in Sarawak is considerably high.

To understand the root cause of this problems, we must relate it to our government’s labour policy. When the government allows the recruitment of cheap foreign labourers into the country, it has some side effects on the local labour market. It has since spoiled the chances of local people to secure employment especially in the manufacturing sectors. When the employer have wide choices of cheap labour supplies, especially from Indonesia, our local citizens are being deprived of their common rights to job opportunities. Not only that, the availability of cheap labour markets also has deprived the local citizens of better pay structures. Take for example in the plywood manufacturing industries, with the Indonesian labourers ready to take up these jobs for a daily wages of RM8 – RM9, surely the employers would opt for these labourers. How could local people survive with this kind of wages especially so, when the cost of living is on the rise. If these cheap labour supplies were not available to these employers, the chances for demanding higher daily wages for locals would be better.

Another setback and disadvantages of over-dependent on foreign labourers is that the country tend to lose in the forms of foreign exchange, that is when the money is taken out of the country or the outflow of cash. So, the government should review this policy, especially the state government, so as to help the local citizens, not foreigners.

Not only Indonesian labourers pose a threat to our local labour markets, the intrusion of skilled workforce from the peninsula are also a threat to the citizens of Sarawak, which deprived us of our opportunities to secure good employment especially in the oils and gas industries. This is very prominent in the case of MLNG, ABF and oil palm plantations where top jobs are dominated by semenanjung people. Others includes such areas as teaching profession, police force and the military.

What jobs are left for us, the Sarawak citizens? Obviously, we don’t have much choices, but to work as labourers (kerja kontrak or berkuli dengan Cina) on a daily rate basis, and this accounts for a large number of local workforce. Others might be farmers by tradition, fisherman and other odd jobs. Some who are lucky enough might be able to secure better jobs such as clerks, teachers, police, doctors, lawyers, but too few.

Where is justice? There’s a proverb “Anak kera disusukan, anak sendiri mati kelaparan”, which match our present situation in Sarawak. People, wake up from your sleep, it’s time to realize your destiny.