BN made us beg for our rights

Written by: Dr. John Brian Anthony

BN politics is not to bring systematic development to Sarawak but a systematic rape and robbery of Sarawak resources and development fund.

Where is our NCR land title?

When we formed Malaysia, we dream of freedom, selfless government and prosperity. Our old Dayak folks wanted to see that they are rightful owner of the land that they cultivated. Today, is this so? No. About 95% of Dayak still do not have title to their land. Even their longhouses are constructed on land without title. If the land is not titled, Awang Tanah (Tengah) say it is State land. So Dayak today are basically people who are squatters in Sarawak because they do not erect their house on titled land.

DAYAK – do you accept that Dayak are squatters by virtue of BN land law and policies? God forbid, I do not accept such plight and I do not spare my effort to have a rightful place in the land of my fore fathers.

Who own Sarawak now?

It is Taib, the elite politicians and the very rich businessmen from the urban areas. They are given million of hectares of land. We Dayak received almost none. Is that acceptable? It is not acceptable and we must put an end to this situation.

How? This coming election we go out in force and vote for Pakatan Rakyat candidates. Pakatan Rakyat promised to give us back our rights to the land that was created through farming from our fore fathers. Today, BN do not allow automatic hand down of NCR land to the descendant of thgose who farm the land. Why? This will allow BN to divide the land and sell it to rich companies or even sell it to their family members at cheap price and sell it to investors at high price. It is a simple mechanism to become rich and millionaires instantly.

We do not see much development in Sarawak.

BN keep on telling us that Sarawak has made big progress, is it so? The quality of our roads are bad. Our hospital and clinics and medical services are not adequate. Our school facilities and at most basics in the rural areas. Our drinking water is so poor that we have to resort to drinking rain water. We do not have electricity for 90% of our longhouses. Is that the “big” development that BN is tellin us after having led the government for over 30 years.

We have given BN a chance. Dr. James Masing observation that educated Dayak is not supporting BN is correct. Educated Dayak are educated in cities and travelled widely and they can see the development in Malaya and elsewhere. By making comparison, these graduate has come to the conclusion that BN actually did a poor deleivery of development in Sarawak. Excuses are many. Sarawak is big with small population etc. That is just excuses. Even towns like Selangau, Julau, Song, Kanowit, Marudi, Saratok, Spaoh, Lachau etcis not well equip. These towns even do not have good clean toilets as a basis of looking for progress`in Sarawak.

But then, billion of money is announced annually to Sarawak? If it is, then where is the money. The endless traffic of logging trucks and tug boats pulling timber barges are an hourly sight. But then where is the moeny gotten from timber to develop Sarawak.

We received 5% oil and gas royalty and every quarterly we received almost 400 million ringgit from Petronas – where is the development that BN is claiming that they are giving Sarawak. In fact we now learn that our Thief Ministers has many billions outside Sarawak. I hate to think about the money that Samling, WTK, KTS, Shin Yang, Naim Cendera has gotten from our natural resources.

Religious rights

Sarawak do not have official religion. Yet today, BN is enforcing restriction and rules for religious practices in Sarawak. The Allah issue and the translated Bible is just the tip of ice-berg. BN Sarawak has fail to bring Dayak issues to national level.

Economics Rights

So Dayak remained a farming community. BN has transform Malay from mere fishermen to global business players by pumping so much money to support Malay transformation. Dayak is included as Bumiputera but we Dayak never enjoy such rights. The Affirmative action of Dayak is limited to the very few. It is so difficult to get the small jobs from the development fund.

Education

In the Eygpt uprising, we see 14,000 students affected by the event and brought back to Malaysia. How many Dayak student are studying in Eygpt? These student are finance using tax payer money – but where are the Dayak students?

Conclusion

We have voted for BN for 40 years now. we have voted BN Dayak leaders. Have they been effective? NO! Dayak leaders are just passengers and doing almost nothing. They champion no issues and have not made any impact to improve the livelihood of Dayak. This is what we DayakBaru are voting against. We must change our leaders from the BN camp to the Pakatan Rakyat camp. Now is the time and let us triumph over the marginalization of BN.