The Sarawak elections

The blogger donplaypuks says Sakmongkol is read by people who think Umno should rule 70 per cent of this country and possibly the other 30 per cent too.

Seventy per cent should be OK. Leave out that 30 per cent. In that 30 per cent not ruled, include Sarawak.

This business of writing about the alleged sexcapades of Anwar Ibrahim is tiring. He is campaigning intensely in Sarawak. He wants to reduce the value of the PM’s fixed deposit. He seems to be unfazed by the allegations. I have written that Anwar is insulated and desensitised beyond reach. He just does not bother about allegations, impending court cases, etc. He doesn’t have to because if PR wins Putrajaya, the tables will be turned.

That spells danger for Najib and his administration.

If he behaves as such, that means the Umno boys have failed to capitalise on the issue of the smut video. They have not handled this issue well. All the three people behind the video got were their 10 minutes of fame or notoriety, depending on how you look at it. They have not done a great service for Umno. Additionally, if showing the smut video in public contravenes the law, they will get punished.

They failed to inflict maximum damage and instead were looking for 10 minutes of fame and glory. Otherwise, how do you explain the bravado and swagger that were clearly shown by the press conference by them? They thought they can impress Umno and the Umno president.

Perhaps this was the element that encouraged some people in the MSM to regard the action of the trio as heroic. If the three people believed it was Anwar and had wanted to inflict the maximum damage in the shortest time with minimum cost, they should have produced thousands of VCDs and distributed them all over. Chua Soi Lek’s smut video, for example, was distributed into letterboxes at homes. Chua Soi Lek didn’t know what to do other than “heroically” owning up.

So, Anwar isn’t bothered at all. He wants to kick this government out and is zeroing in on Sarawak. If Umno doesn’t bother, then they are dancing to Anwar’s tune. Umno and the Najib administration must bother. To hear it from the mainstream paper boys, they write as if PR and Anwar don’t have a rat’s ass of a chance. Well, they write so at their own peril.

There are so many issues in the Sarawak elections. Topping it is the issue of the management of the state under the leadership of “pek moh” Taib Mahmud. What has Taib Mahmud become? He may have become a Polonius, the character in Hamlet who is a busybody, who is accordingly officious, garrulous and impertinent. In Act II Hamlet refers to Polonius as a “tedious old fool”. Taib Mahmud has become that, after 30 years of unchallenged rule that has bred insensitivity and arrogance of the highest level.

Even after 30 years of rule, the majority of the people in Sarawak must be wondering, where has the state’s wealth gone to? The answer, it has gone mostly to Taib and his gang. Sarawak has become a byword for unbridled corruption. This is the main issue in Sarawak.

People of Sarawak must now read through Taib’s promises of better development and better welfare as not inspired by a desire to really improve the welfare of the people; people of Sarawak must now know that Taib is driven by a desire to perpetuate his hold on power and that of a dynasty he intends to leave behind.

Why doesn’t he quit now before the elections? Because he wants to put in place his grand plan. Who is to succeed him? He wants to fish out his sons to become his successor or an outsider so deep with him who can be counted on to look after his vast interests.

We don’t have to come out with the list of pillage and plunder. The people simply know it’s happening on a grand scale. The telltale signs of corruption, pillage, theft and larceny of the state’s wealth have been extensively documented. The expose about Taib’s family’s fabulous wealth, tales of lavish parties, palatial homes all over the world, monopolistic business practices, decadent living and so forth.

While the majority languished in rudimentary appointed longhouses and hovels, the elite and the rich entertained themselves in the most decadent of lifestyles. None more tasteless and insensitive than the marriage of Taib’s niece on a luxury yacht. I think the people of Sarawak do not have to think twice about kicking out those modern-day Marie Antoinettes and the freeloaders on board the luxury yacht on that day.

The people of Sarawak have no other choice but to kick out all the corrupt politicians. Don’t bother even if the party is backed by Umno or the BN. We simply can’t allow a corrupt regime to prolong. If Umno continues to support Taib Mahmud’s administration, it places itself on the side of the corrupt, the pillagers and the plunderers of the state’s wealth. It simply stands on the side of the people’s enemy.

I am writing this article for the people of Sarawak in mind. I believe there will many changes this time around. Taib Mahmud and his coalition will lose a majority of the urban seats. These seats will be won mainly by the DAP. I think the BN leadership has underestimated the will of the Dayaks whom they think are easily taken in by the usual talk of development. From what I hear, the Dayaks on the whole are resolute in wanting to kick out Taib Mahmud.

If the Najib administration is serious in wanting to bolster its credibility with the people of Sarawak and show it is one with them, Najib as the BN leader must ask Taib Mahmud, Alfred Jabu and George Chan to leave. All have chosen to stand for re-election.

George Chan announced he was leaving politics in the last state elections and he didn’t. Taib Mahmud has promised to leave but, as soon as the PM and DPM left Sarawak, announced that he will leave on his own time and terms. The people of Sarawak must help him decide then by kicking him out.

Bring in new faces, winnable, clean and uncorrupted. Forget the fallacy of thinking Sarawak can’t be governed without people like Taib Mahmud. It’s not like Sarawak is going to die if Taib Mahmud is not CM. and I think it’s time Sarawak has a Dayak as CM.

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was the assemblyman for Pulau Manis (2004-2008).