Does Naim Cendera really care?

Does NC really care for the welfare of the road users traveling along Mukah-Selangau Road? What has happened to their “We Care Campaign”? It is actually a well orchestrated gimmicks backed by political motives. An average man on the streets knows what they are up to. What they really care about is the profits, the rest go to HELL.

It is learned from reliable sources that, for the daily maintenance of the road, NC are paid RM8,000 per day. Whether the works are done or not, that amount are still paid. That is the main reason why they delay the completion of the upgrading. The longer time they take to complete, the more money comes in. The faster time to complete this project, less money comes in, as simple as that! Even a toddler knows how to do the calculations.

Squatters along Tg Kidurong

Tanjung Kidurong, Bintulu, Sarawak is where the country’s biggest oil and gas resources originated.   Malaysia LNG contributed largely to Malaysian economy.   Petronas Twin Tower existed due to MLNG.  A large number of work force from Semenanjung came to Tanjung Kidurong Bintulu and made oil and gas industries as their career and rice bowl.  Expatriates from foreign countries also came to Bintulu.  Bintulu is renowned worldwide due to its MLNG plant.

The world only knows about oil and gas extracted from here.  But all along Tanjung Kidurong road, there’s a disease hidden from the world. The diseases are the squatter areas such as Sebatang, Openg, Muzako and BDA Pasir Putih.  If you happen to drop by at one of these areas, you would not believe that there still exist places like that.  I doubt the authority ever care to know about the existence of these squatters.  Even if they know, what have they done?   What effort has the local authority carry out to change them?

More money for Sarawak

In today's paper, Najib said he will assure that more money for Sarawak in the next 10th Malaysia Plan. Immediately, it came across my mind the following questions:

1. How much more?
2. Who benefits from that fund?
3. How would the rakyat know that, the fund are really for the people, not for "Certain People"?

Like before and always, there's no transparency in implementing any kind of project. Only a certain people did really enjoy the "isi" and the rakyat will, like always, get the "kuah". This has been the federal practice towards us, especially Sabah and Sarawak.

Another question which I love to ask is, why is it only now that the federal really take care of Sabah and Sarawak? Why? Is it because of the change of leadership? Or is it because of the result of the previous GE which might have woken them from sleep? Well, if it so, good for Sarawak. At least they are awake before the thieves take away their beloved empire from them. This means too, the result of the previous GE really scare them to death.

SCORE

SCORE (Sarawak Corridor Of Renewable Energy) telah dilancarkan di Bintulu pada tahun 2008 sebelum pilihanraya umum ke 12 oleh Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.   Difahamkan SCORE mempunyai visi dan misi untuk mewujudkan 1.6 juta peluang pekerjaan kepada rakyat negeri Sarawak menjelang tahun 2030 dan seterusnya dapat menaikkan taraf kehidupan rakyat di kawasan yang terbabit.

Namun, sehingga hari ini, sudah hampir setahun berlalu semenjak pelancaran SCORE, belum nampak tanda tanda program tersebut akan dilaksanakan.   Apakah kita perlu menunggu selama 5 tahun lagi untuk menikmati hasil daripada program tersebut, iaitu apabila menjelang pilihanraya yang seterusnya, PRU ke 13 nanti?

Nampaknya, kerajaan ingin menjadinya sebagai platform bagi mengabui mata rakyat serta menarik undi rakyat.   Mungkin kerajaan BN sudah tidak ada isu lagi.   Kita sebagai rakyat biasa yang langsung tidak ada pengetahuan tentang hal ini tentu akan percaya 100% kepada manifesto tersebut.   Kenapa mengambil masa yang begitu lama untuk memulakan perlaksanaan program tersebut, sedangkan kerajaan BN hanya ada masa selama 22 tahun untuk mencapai matlamat 2030?

Apabila sampai waktu untuk memilih kerajaan yang baru nanti, sudah tentu kita akan menconteng lambang dacing lagi kerana takut program tersebut tidak dapat diteruskan dan tidak diberi peruntukan untuk menjalankan pembangunan.   Seperti lazimnya, selepas habis pilihanraya, kita akan kembali sebok mencari nafkah dan sudah pasti akan lupa akan manisfesto tersebut, sehinggalah tiba masa pilihanraya yang seterusnya.   Begitulah dari dulu sehingga sekarang tidak ada perubahan pada amalan kerajaan BN.

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.

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.

Unoccupied flat units

The flats at Sg Plan resettlement scheme has been sold out since they first opened over 5 years ago. However, until now, there are still a lot of unoccupied units around. Nobody knows, what has happened to all these units. What a waste of resources!

When Suruhanjaya Pembangunan Perumahan Sarawak (SPPS) first allocate the units to the public, they did not properly screen the applicants. Some applicants applied these flat units just for the sake of applying when other people are doing so. The SPPS did not properly identify who really need these houses and who don’t. As a result, most are left vacant even though they have been sold. The SPPS should take prompt actions to repossess these overdue units and resell them to the needy as soon as possible.

Had the applicants been properly screened and the proper allocation system was followed, it wouldn’t have happened as it is now. They should not use the lucky draw system but should be based upon the applicants’ income’s capability and capacity. There are thousands of people who qualified and really needs these houses. What has happened to the gov’t policy of providing low cost housing for the people. What really happened was that, this scheme only benefited a few, not a majority of the people. In this case, only the lucky ones got them. In fact, this project was to benefit certain politicians and contractors, as what was happening everywhere. It is better still they don’t build any at all, so that it was fair to all the people.

If you have the chance to visit the squatters at Sebatang, Openg, Muzako and BDA Pasir Putih in Tanjung Kidurong Bintulu, you’ll be amazed to come across the plight of the people in this under-developed state. Why are people still living in squatters? Sad to note that, the majority of these squatters are bumiputeras. Why hasn’t the gov’t of BN really put up an effort to get rid of this situations. Each time Rancangan Malaysia and annual budget was announced, they have never failed to include poverty eradication measures in their agendas. But, how well were they being implemented? How well has the Politics of Development help the people of Sarawak. What has the people, the voters, got in return for their generous votes? I think the authority have not done enough and have not provide enough low cost housing for the people, when in fact the people needs more.

Ferry service in Dalat

Dalat is a small town located about 35 km from Mukah. The majority of populations are Melanaus, Chinese, Iban and Malays being in small number. Up till now when other towns are growing very fast in terms of development, Dalat still lag behind in terms of infrastructures.

The ferry service between Dalat bazaar and kampung Brunei is very saddening to watch. The ferry is made of wooden materials which rot very fast due to exposure to water and heat. In that situations, it would be very dangerous to users, for one thing, there is no insurance coverage in case the unwanted incident happen. User's safety is not guaranteed.

Vehicles queuing up and waiting to board the wooden ferry.

The constructions of the bridge connecting Dalat bazaar and kampung Brunei has been stagnant after it started more that a year ago. What has happened to the project, nobody knows. It seems that, the local authority is not giving priority to the projects.

Where is the wakil rakyat concerned? It seems that the wakil rakyat is sleeping soundly after unopposed win during the last state elections. No actions has been taken to speed up the bridge constructions on the part of the wakil rakyat. Come next elections, I hope there's someone coming up to give a challenge to the incumbent.

The worse road in Sarawak

If you have been frequently travelling along the road linking Selangau and Mukah, probably you would know better what I mean in this articles. Needless for me to explaine further. However, not every readers have experienced that dreadful journey or aware of the conditions of the road that I am talking about. Actually, this is a century old issue, which has been pending for quite some times. However, for humanitarian sake and a sense of responsibility as the citizen of Sarawakian, I feel obliged to highlight to world about the plight of the users of the road concerned. The conditions of this road is so poor that I really pitty my Kancil when I travelled to Dalat recently during my not-so-pleasant journey. Imagine the damages that the road has done to the vehicles passing by all this while.

I notice that, there are some repairs work going on, but the works are done at a snail paces. The reconstructions of the new ones seems to be meeting the dead end and the work has stopped for no obvious reasons. As you may notice, below are the pictures I took along the way.

Where are all the revenues from our oil and timber exports? Understandably, all those revenues goes to the federal government and used by them to build better roads and sky scrappers for themselves. What can the 5% royalty do to improve our infrastructures? Nothing much. We deserved more than that. These revenues should be used by the state government to build better roads and ammenities for Sarawakian.

So, fellow Sarawakians please wake up. It's just the right time to have a change. Come next elections, please cast your vote wisely this time. Use your eyes and see around. Use your head and think.