Talk of change irrelevant in Sarawak

Throughout my life, I have seen and experienced changes all the time, more so in my working life. Therefore, I find it ridiculous and insulting, to say the least, that people should be talking about change in their battle cry to win political support.

To me, it is very typical of the mentality of politicians from outside, who consider themselves superior and the local people inferior in a backward state. For example, Ustaz Hadi Awang considered the people in Lubok Antu, for their deference to cawat, their traditional costume, as backward people. Presumably, he considers his way of dressing as the correct and progressive one for Malaysians. Think again.

Obviously, those who are shouting for Change are either very arrogant or ignorant of the local situation. In my earlier posting, I mentioned that Sarawak until the earlier 70s had only about 650 miles of roads, mainly sub-standard roads. Now the State can boast of a total length of more than 30,000KM of roads throughout the State. The first trunk road links Kuching with Sibu and Miri. The second trunk road that started in the 90s cuts along the winding and in most places, muddy and soggy coastlines. The roads have to be constructed with the technology from Czechoslovakia primarily to open up lands for the development of plantations or estates. Now the coastal trunk road passes through Samarahan, Simunjan, Saribas, Saratok all the way to Tanjung Manis. The second phase will eventually connect Tanjung Manis to Mukah all the way to Miri. Then Sarawak will be served by two main roads systems.

Sarawak, which is about 95% of the size of Peninsular Malaysia, has no history of estate development, now it has a total acreage of about 1 million hectares. The Ibans, who used to stay in longhouses scattered over a wide in Lubok Antu, have been resettled into a bigger and more organized community. Now Lubok Antu, which used to serve as a place to exile errant civil servants, can boast of having the first hydro generating station in the state, a beautiful lake where the local people can rear and harvest fish.

The Orang Ulu, comprising of Kayans, Kenyahs, Kelabits, Penans, Bukitans and hosts of others, who used to resist change and stay in small settlements scattered over a wide area in Belaga, have been resettled into a bigger and more organized community in Sungei Assap, which is accessible by road to Bintulu. Admittedly, the State Government got the wrath for the initial inconveniences and problems being experienced by the affected people. Apparently the problems, which were quickly exploited by the foreign NGOs, seem to simmer down now. The list of changes that have taken in Sarawak is listless. However, it is not my intention to list them down less I will be accused of being a propaganda machine for the Government.

Now work is in progress to resettle the people in four Bidayuh villages in the remote and inaccessible parts of Padawan in a new area to become a more organized and modern community between Penrissen and Bau . The people in Semban, at the furthest end of the road, have to walk four hours to their village now. And yet they resist change in spite of the promise of a better life for them.

I had the privilege of working in an agency that should know about development and changes taking place in the State and country. Suffice for me to say here that Sarawak, through the process of continuous change, has been transformed from a backward state to one of the fast growing economy in the country, if not the region. It has already laid a strong foundation to become the richest state in the country by the year 2030, God willing.

Obviously, those who talk about change are banging on the popularity of the slogan, which drove the first black man into the white house, the first black man to become President of USA. But ask ourselves what changes have Obama brought to Capitol Hill, to the colored population of USA. The polls yesterday indicated that the popularity of his party has dropped significantly. There is every likelihood that his party may lose the majority in the House of Representatives. There are already talks that Obama may just be a one-term President. He has not been able to walk the talk or capitalize on the euphoria of his ascendency into the White House.

Be that as it may, the talk of change is totally irrelevant in Sarawak, which has been seeing changes since the 70s. The third Chief Minister of Sarawak, Dato Haji Abdul Rahman Ya’kub, now Tun Abdul Rahman Ya’kub, spoke of making Sarawak the No.1 state in the country through the process of change from one of backwardness to progress and modernity. The current Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud spoke about change since he took over the helm of the State government since March 26, 1981.

He goes steps further by crystallizing the process of Change with his concept of COME that stands for Change, Opportunity, Mobility and Equality. Clearly those, who are shouting about change now are out of date and having no ideas of their own in talking about ways to transform the state from the middle income to high income economy toward the year 2020. Understandably, the Opposition talks about change as a façade to their ambition to take over the realm of the State Government. Here is the crux of my concern. We must not gamble our future with parties that make the so-called people’s front or Pakatan Rakyat which is yet to be registered.

It is incumbent upon us to think carefully about the Opposition’s talk of change. Remind ourselves of turmoil in Perak, the backwardness of Kelantan as the poorest state in the country, the politically charged environment in Selangor and Pulau Pinang and the non-performing government in Kedah Darulaman. I do not know much about PKR, a part from knowing that it is associated with street demonstrations, public disobedience but I have come of age to know that DAP, is very chauvinistic party and PAS, a very conservative Islamic party. Both parties are poles apart in ideologies and totally unacceptable in a multi-racial, multi-religious state like Sarawak if Sarawak is to maintain its unique characteristic and the peace and harmony of the people.

The concept of COME

As I said earlier, Pehin Sri Abdul Taib’s concept of COME take cognizance of the fact that the people must learn to recognise and accept Change. They must talk about change and learn to adjust to it to enable them to see opportunities. In other words, they must adjust to change in order to recognise opportunities. A good example could best be illustrated in the responses of the Malay and Chinese communities towards the government’s proposal to set up an army camp in their areas. The immediate response of parents in the Malay community was concerned for the safety of their daughters.

On the other hand, the Chinese considered the proposal as opportunities to open up laundry shops to wash clothes of soldiers, coffee shops, restaurants and other entertainment outlets to cater for their needs. The Malays, because they did not want to adapt to the new environment, failed to recognise the changes. All opportunities to open up laundary shops, coffee shops and entertainment outlets did not occur to them because they had already rejected the idea of building the army camp in their areas. In other words, they missed opportunities because they refused to open their mind to changes; they were not willing to adjust to changes. Instead, they were very defensive of their ways of life.

The process of mobility is to get people to leave their environment and move forward. It does not necessarily mean physical motion but social change. Equality is what we have started to feel among us. For example, the words “Lakia” orang Meran, Orang Laut are no longer bandied around, which help to nurture the stronger sense of equality among the people. Equality is a very important concept. It is a concept of learning how to accept other people, who have equal right to interact with other people. For example, in the work places, the people have the equality with all the patience to entertain or train other people. It is important that the pattern of the new society must be understood by the people. So the words Change, Opportunity, Mobility and Equality make up for the word COME, which is very easy to remember.

A reflection of Change

The new reality is partly a vision and a reflection of Change, which has been taking place. The people must go for good things, which will be features of things to come. All these features will be the new reality, if people are prepared to embrace change, able to recognise opportunities, willing to be mobile in seeking for new opportunities, learn to compromise with each other and tolerate and interact with each other; Sarawak will have a free society in a true sense of equality. Quite obviously, the people are embracing change. The human qualities, which are deep inside the people are surfacing when they have freedom and a better way of life. Actually Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib’s politics of development that talks about business, culture, social life is pushing for change.

Admittedly, there are social problems as not all the people flow together with the mainstream of development. There will be some water that flows into small enclaves. In other words, there will be people, who are trapped in counter current and becoming social problems. They comprise those who do not interact with other people. Fortunately, they form negligible part of the change. The bigger part comprise of people with normal human instinct. They are very strong in mitigation in life.

As the State is still rich in resources, there is no reason for the people to go after each other’s throat. However, it must dawn upon us to continue to work together develop more of the natural resources. AS opportunities are getting bigger, through the process of development, the amount of work has increased by leaps and bounds. So why fight when there are only few people to divide the opportunities. Instead, we must work together to develop the development potentials in order to create more opportunities to be shared among us. The mathemathic of distribution of development benefits must be analysed at the basic level where we can understand that development means creation of new opportunities. That is why development is so important.

Commitment to move forward

The people must have the common commitment to move forward by looking through a bigger perspective, beyond the political divides. They must be serious about working together to realise all potentials in order to create more opportunities for themselves. They must realise that if they fight, they are actually fighting for nothing. Regrettably, some people, who have not fully understood the concept of development still see opportunities like durians and prefer to wait for them to fall. They must get rid of such perspective and never consider development as falling durians. They must work for their own progress and advancement.

benuasains

*pics source: google.com images