Long Lapok, September 01 2010 --Villagers affected by the proposed road upgrading works between Beluru-Lapok held a protest outside a local coffee shop, Kedai Kopi Nyamai this afternoon. Armed with placards condemning the state government, some 80 villagers also chanted slogans during the 30-minute protest.
The protest is held as a response to the announcement made in last month by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who flew in a Black Hawk helicopter to Long Banga and declared “I will ensure that the RM100 million Beluru-Lapok Road is implemented.”
Long Banga is situated very close to the Sarawak-Indonesia border. It requires an eight to 10-hour drive from Miri, or one hour by helicopter.
The untarred Lapok Road, off the highway, is full of huge potholes; some so big they can swallow up a small car, which is a pride among the locals here. During the rainy season, the entire Lapok Road turns into a slush of mud, sand and loose stones. A spokesperson from Tourism Ministry who refused to give his identity revealed that the Tourism Ministry will make this into a niche tourism attraction for the gullible tourists.
Led by the Lapok Aggravated and Mistreated People’s Association (LAMPA) chairman Lipahim Tali, the protesters voiced their disapproval against the state government’s decision to upgrade the Lapok road.
Lipahim claimed that the road have important historical and cultural value, having existed for 40 years and should be preserved as native heritage in the state. The villagers are very happy with the current condition of the road.
“Historically, we are long staying residents here since the James Brooke era. We have the right to keep the road in its current state. We do not want it to be upgraded,” he said.
Some 16,000 villagers from the settlements and villages along the stretch from the Miri-Bintulu highway to Lapok Bazaar are affected by the proposed road upgrading works.
Cargo-transporter Tee Tok Kok regularly sends supplies to shops in Lapok Bazaar.
His five-tonne lorry had been damaged many times. Punctured tyres, twisted axles and rims are just some of the resulting troubles he had to put up with travelling along the road. But this is something Tee looks forward to as he aspires to be in Malaysian Book of Records for the vehicle owner with most frequently break down vehicle -- for category lorry below five tonne.
“During the rainy season, it is very risky travelling along this road, and that is the best time to travel for me. There have been times when I get stuck in the mud and cannot get out, and I truly enjoyed the experience. I am confident I will make it into Malaysian Book of Records soon,” he said.
“I hope the government will let us endure this for as long as it takes. Why is it that the Government leaders keep saying year after year that funds to repair Lapok Road has already been approved? We don’t need that. The government can use that fund for more important and better things like new State Legislative Assembly building or sending another space tourist.
Tee happily shared a video from his personal collection to all the readers.
LAPOK Bazaar is 120km from Miri city but the distance is not the problem. It is what you encounter along the Miri-Bintulu highway that makes the trip one you will not soon forget.
The untarred Lapok Road, off the highway, is full of huge potholes; some so big they can swallow up a small car.
During the rainy season, the entire Lapok Road turns into a slush of mud, sand and loose stones. Driving on then becomes not only a rough experience, it becomes dangerous.
Muddy: All sorts of vehicles can get stuck along this Miri-Lapok road that had remained in horrendous condition for the past 40 years.
The condition of the road is so bad that accidents and vehicle breakdowns are a daily event.
There are some 16,000 people living in settlements and villages along the stretch from the Miri-Bintulu highway to Lapok Bazaar.
They have to travel on this horrendous road every day to get to Miri to work, shop and school.
The Lapok Road was built 40 years ago and its condition has gone from bad to worse.
Cargo-transporter Teo Boon Seng regularly sends supplies to shops in Lapok Bazaar.
His five-tonne lorry had been damaged many times. Punctured tyres, twisted axles and rims are just some of the resulting troubles he had to put up with travelling along the road.
“During the rainy season, it is very risky travelling along this road, but I have no choice. Whenever the shops in Lapok run out of supplies, my boss in Miri will assign me to deliver these goods.
“There have been times when I get stuck in the mud and cannot get out. I have to call for help from tow-trucks,” he said.
“How much longer are we going to have to endure this? Why is it that the Government leaders keep saying year after year that funds to repair Lapok Road has already been approved?
“Where are the funds? If the funds had been channeled, why hasn’t repair work started?” Teo questioned.
Baram MP Datuk Jacob Dungau Sagan recently said a RM150mil budget for the repair and upgrading of the road had been approved by the Treasury Department.
He said the authorities were now in the process of hiring a contractor to repair the road.
Sarawak is a strong fortress of the establishment, Barisan Nasional. Heck, Sarawak (together with Sabah) saved BN from embarrassment last General Election by giving them enough seats to rule this country. BN already lost in Peninsular at that time judging from the popular votes BN 48% – 52% PR, the sentiment had switched to Pakatan Rakyat.
People of Sarawak are still immune to the change happening in Peninsular, and from the most recent by election held after the GE at Batang Ai, Pakatan Rakyat still has a lot of works to do in order to make wave in Sarawak. BN retained Batang Ai seat when its candidate Malcolm Mussen Lamoh, defeated PKR’s Jawah Gerang with an increased majority. Yes, increased majority. Pakatan Rakyat’s campaign for that by election is a total disappointment. I couldn’t even understand for what reason they chose Jawah Gerang as candidate in the first place. I wrote this in my previous post,
Why lah PKR chose Jawah Gerang as its candidate? This guy was the state assemblyman for the area for a freaking 5 terms! 20 over years! And we shall have him to bring ‘change?’ Niamah!
Nevermind that, we are now holding our breath over the latest political center of attention, Sibu. This seat is very important for both BN and PR. Why? Anyone who wins this seat, can confidently say it may have a greater, better chance to fare well in the coming state election and general election.
BN needs to win this seat to maintain its grip on its ’strong seat’ and to send a message to all Malaysians that it is making a comeback under the new political master and all the promised changes, mantras, KPIs, KRAs have struck a chord of acceptance among Malaysians.
PR needs to win this seat to make inroads to Sarawak. A win in Sibu will change everything. It will change the perception among people that only BN is the one and only choice for them. The perception that BN is mighty and will not lose. Just like before GE 2008, people thought it was impossible for BN to lose. People could not accept that change is possible. Who would have thought that BN would lose its 2/3 majority?
Before all this, every by election was won by BN easily without much sweat. No more of that, we have to make people understand change is a good thing. The elected party will work harder to earn its worth. We should not give our votes easily, make them beg if necessary. Just think, before all this happened, did BN ever talk about change? About reform? And now their leaders are talking about change and reforms. Most still remain rhetoric but that is a start, to acknowledge the need for change and reform.
I am not a political analyst, I am not somebody to reckon with in politics, I am not someone with plenty of experience in politics, I am not even a member of any political party. But I have few things to say Pakatan Rakyat leaders if they want to have better chance of winning the Sibu seat, this coming by election.
1) Tone and direction of the campaign. Please don’t campaign like how you campaign in Peninsular. It doesn’t work. Forget about condemning Umno, MCA, MIC. When in Sarawak, talk about the component parties here. SUPP, PBB. Why talk about Umno? The party does not even operate in Sarawak. People here cannot relate to that.
People here most probably don’t find Umno so much a threat. Most threats are from the local parties, local leaders here. Better talk about Taib Mahmud. Or talk about Alfred Jabu ak Numpang. James Jemut Masing. George Chan. Robert Lau has passed aways, not so good to talk about him and he is very much loved figure among the locals when he was alive. Better, forget about condemning other parties if you can manage.
2) Please don’t make the campaign into another ‘condemn Barisan Nasional and its evil doings’. Have some class. Try to change the way you campaign. Some opposition parties have been campaigning that way since their existence, they know nothing but to whack, whack, whack and whack BN all the way.
People already know all the good things and bad things about BN. Talk about what Pakatan Rakyat can offer. Make it a campaign on ‘what Pakatan Rakyat candidate can provide as a representative of the people, the need for check and balance, what are the good things PR has carried out as a state government in Penang, Selangor, Kelantan, Perak (er….), Kedah.
3) Talk about issues that have immediate and obvious effect to the locals. Sorry but the political reality is, locals here cannot relate to Altantuya, TBH, PKFZ. So, touch on LOCAL ISSUES. Corruption cases, dirts by LOCAL LEADERS. Address the urgent, immediate problems of the locals. Local issues like flooding, land titles.
4) Work with local leaders. Let them take the stage. If possible use local dialects to engage the locals. In a predominant Iban crowds, find some Iban leaders to talk. Or speak some stammering Iban words. It will do wonders.
That is enough for now, I guess. All the best for the by election!
I am not feeling well today. Went to the toilet a bit too many times yesterday and this morning. Down with fever last night. I slept the whole night, from 7.30pm till this morning.
Heat stroke? All the traveling and standing under the sun for the past two weeks. Food poisoning? Too much beer? Wait, I think I know the source of my food poisoning. I came back from Bintulu last Thursday and RasMhd fetched me from airport using Sarah. I left Sarah with him and Luky before I went to Bintulu. “Oi, sapa makan aiskrim lam keta aku, dah ya tumpah kat tepi seat!!! Passenger seat. Cheebuy takorang yeeer..”
Went to Bintulu to see this o.O
We decided to eat at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCKK) where Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) convention is held for the past one week. RasMhd needed to go back there to for some photo-shoot sessions. He’s one of the many photographers for the PBB convention. Of course, he is the best among all! “heh heh, promote boh sik!”
A peek inside a photog’s bag
Took this photo when I fetched RasMhd and Luky at their hotel the other day. Luky was distributing tags, bags, hotel keys.“Ney bag aku oii!”
Gotta love the theme for this year – Transformasi Rakyat untuk Mencapai Ekonomi Berpendapatan Tinggi (Transforming People Towards High-Income Economy), hope they understand what it really means, especially the ‘high-income economy part’. Since PM came out with this ‘high-income’ economy thing, everybody is talking about it. Just like the 1Malaysia hype. Islam Hadhari. Malaysia Boleh. Malaysians are suckers for slogans. One of our favourite past times is sloganeering, I guess.
The state relies heavily on palm oil plantations, logging and petroleum as its main sources of income. Apart from petroleum and its related industries, the other sectors are not exactly high-income sectors because those sectors depend a lot on cheap foreign labours with non existence of minimum wages. This article written by Dr. Fong Chan Onn is a good read, for us to understand the limitations and things we need to change before we embark on this mission to be a nation of ‘high-income’ economy – Caught in middle-income trap.
Back to the story, we had dinner at BCCK since meals were prepared for the PBB delegates and people related to the function. Er, I am also related, since I was the driver for my friends who were working for the event. Ha! Ha!
Awesome dishes. Especially love the Daging Masak Kicap. (Beef in Soy Sauce) It reminds me of the days I was a hostel student back in Kolej TDTH Bujang. One of the few dishes at the dining hall I looked forward to eat at that time. LOL!
Just both of us were sitting at the table, eating food prepared for 10 persons. I went home fully stuffed. The next morning (yesterday), I visited the toilets thrice. Few more visits to the loo during along the day. Also a bit stressed out because of the amount of emails I needed to reply, reports to write and meetings to attend. After work, went to see Sai Wan of The Star for a little chat. He is here for the launch of The Star, Sarawak Edition. I have been tweet-chatting with him on Twitter for a while now. It is great to meet new people and I always look forward to do so to get to know the real persons apart from their online personas, or reputations.
I went back home, dozed off till this morning and visited the toilet few more times again. I need to see a doctor if I still religiously visit the toilet. Hmm… pretty sure this is due to the ‘free food’ I ate last Thursday night at BCCK. I have learned something from this and I wish to share it with my readers.
1. ‘Makan duit rakyat’ (eating people’s money) is never good. Kthxbai.
2. Toilet affair is more fun now, with the invention of Twitter.
ps: High-income economy. No minimum wages. Message delivered by old farts, for old farts. Party full of old farts. Bunch of old farts run the country. How?
I thought I would slow down writing on socio-political issues since I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and spending most of my time there on such issues, but I need to pen down more than 140 characters for this particular issue.
In the latest development, our very wise and forward thinking Attorney General has decided to let the two Al Islam journalists of the hook, without any reason given for such decision. So he is playing judge as well, deciding whether criminals can be let free or not, eh?
The duo were then investigated under Section 298A (1) of the Penal Code for causing disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion.
It was reported yesterday that the Dang Wangi district police headquarters, through the officer in charge of the case, had sent a letter to the complainant telling him that the AG’s office would not be pressing charges.
No reason was given for the decision.
Well, guess who came to the AG’s rescue for his decision? Khairy Jamaluddin, Umno Youth chief, who also happened to be the first Malaysian Muslim politician to condemn the action of the two irresponsible Al Islam journalists when the issue came out.
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 — Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (picture) said today the Attorney General’s decision to let two Al-Islam magazine journalists off the hook for allegedly desecrating Catholic Communion hosts should not matter so long as the magazine has “learned its lesson from this episode.”
Allow me to use famous point-form blog writing style ala Che Det here.
1. Stupid reason for not prosecuting.
‘So long as the magazine has learned its lesson from this episode‘ is one of the most stupid reason for not prosecuting.
What kind of signal the government is trying to send out? That rule of law can be undermined by politics? This episode happened way before the cow-head incident (happened in September 2009), churches arson attacks (happened early of January 2010) and pig head incident (happened end of January 2010).
When it happened, no swift and immediate action was taken, apart for the usual condemnation by politicians and promises to investigate the matter. Because of the efficiency of such inaction by the government and the authorities, it gave some sort of blessings for more untowards incidents to happen after, which we witnessed.
2. Lackadaisical action by the government and authorities in dealing with ’sensitive’ matters like this.
Lackadaisical action by the government may have led to a perception that certain groups of people with vested interests and subversive tendencies have the immunity to carry out their despicable acts to disturb the peace and harmony in the country.
When the ‘cow head incident’ took place, the government and the authorities took the ‘cow head incident’ played down the incident, taking it lightly and were even seen to show some support and sympathy for that provocative, senseless and insensitive action (Hishammuddin ‘Keris’ Hussein even went to defend cow head protester!). Malaysians couldn’t help but to think that those people had the blessings of someone or some groups with the required political clout to protect them.
Thanks to many sensible Malaysians who made it clear that such nonsense and ineptitude cannot be tolerated. Had it not been for the public outcry over that heinous behaviour, those responsible would not have been charged in court. Even that has been rather slow and lacked the urgency or importance for a highly-sensitive provocation with seemingly religious overtones.
@bongkersz Perhaps, but the train has left the station on ‘taking action’. Tensions must be eased first. 3:36 PM Feb 26th via UberTwitter in reply to bongkersz
Well, if I miss the train, I’ll be sure to take a plane to catch up, or at least give chase and not letting the train goes without me. To be honest, Malaysians are sick of inactions over matters like this, not the timing of such actions to be taken. Also interesting to note, this argument by Khairy.
He, however, argued that the decision may have been reached to “balance out” the racial and religious tension caused by the “Allah” row in a bid to prevent further unease.
Funny, because these two journalists were investigated under Section 298A (1) of the Penal Code for causing disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion. Now, instead of using available laws provisioned to take care of offences that will jeopardise harmony or unity, we should ‘let go’ to get the same result – maintain harmony and unity? Aiseh, this is so confusing..
“I don’t want to speculate on the reason..but there are things that you can take to court and others best to leave it to other sensible ways for solution,” Khairy said.
Letting them off the hook is a sensible way of solution? This ’sensible’ solution is to please few stubborn extremists or the many good Muslims and Malaysians? Are we going to sacrifice the rule of law under the pretext of maintaining peace and harmony at the mercy of few troublemakers? What, they got the AG (government, police and KJ) by the balls now? Malaysian is held hostage by these crooks?
Many good Muslims out there would see the wrong committed by these two journalists and to press charges would bring satisfaction to many. (except for people like Ibrahim Ali) Give Malaysians more credits, they are wiser now and united to crush any element of chaos and destruction to their peaceful and harmonious living.
4. Glaring inconsistencies
Why we are letting some people off the hook for major issues, but calling heads for minor issues? Why the cow head protestors are charged but the two Al Islam journalists not? Would there be a lesser sentence meted out for the cow head protestors later if they are found guilty, because this is their first offence and they have learned their lesson well? Just recently, Malaysians were mind-fucked by this piece of news:
Man who raped minor gets sentence reduced
SEREMBAN: A 32-year-old odd-job worker had his jail sentence for raping a minor reduced by 10 years, after the High Court here took into consideration that he was a first-time offender and had cooperated with the police.
WTF is that?
Oh, I think Gunasegaran of The Star should use such argument over his caning article episode. Home Ministry is considering to take action against The Star and Gunasegaran for sedition (see what I said about inconsistencies?) so maybe Gunasegaran should say he has learned his lesson too. For greater impact, Khairy Jamaluddin can help to put out a good word for him and The Star too.
We cannot, in any way compromise the security, peace and harmonious living of the Malaysian community. We must reject those who use it to gain political superiority and power. Anything that threatens these vital requirements for a progressive and tranquil way of life should be dealt with swiftly while imparting a strong message to the perpetrators of the severe consequences of their actions.
The government has to set strong examples that Malaysians do not condone any disruption to their normal way of life, so enjoyed and valued for a nation of great hope. The right decision must be made in a swift and consistent manner.
ps: Of course, I am writing this with the assumption the rule of law still has meaning here. *chuckles*
“I am mentally healthy, I have no injuriesand I will not commit suicide,” - Must let all friends, family know about this, to be safe :D 2 days ago
Namawee: “I am mentally healthy, I have no injuries and I will not commit suicide,” http://bit.ly/bSVUGD <-- hahaha! cheeky fella. 2 days ago
What say U? @NajibRazak RT @timmysay: Pn. Siti Insyak shud b given d same coverage as Namawee. A TASK FORCE shd b established to investigate 2 days ago
Jack Bauer! Huarghhh!! Chuck Norris is tough, but Jack Bauer is tougher. No one crosses Jack Bauer and lives.. 2 days ago
LadyBird: by looking at a glance on the road condition (based on the picture), it is much better as compared to miri-bakong road.... on The curse of the ’signboard’.
Muddy: All sorts of vehicles can get stuck along this Miri-Lapok road that had remained in horrendous condition for the past 40 years.
