Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Let's Blame The Sarawak Voters

Sarawak voters act on the presumption that 1 bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush. They expect to be bribed by both sides, even with peanuts, not realising or believing what their BN leaders & so-called representatives are getting away with. 

Electoral bribery, corrupt practices, threats & intimidation are rampant, yet it is not easy to gather evidence when the SPR and the polis side with the ruling party with impunity. 

Are the people to be blamed? They also suffer from a persecution complex where they prefer to submit to the oppression of their persecutors in the hope of obtaining some relief from that very same oppression. They really believe that their meagre allowances, pensions, children's schooling & scholarships, agricultural subsidies, jobs & whatever benefits they get can & will be taken away & they will face dire consequences for opposing the party in power. 

The natives have been reduced to the status of squatters & trespassers on their own customary right lands that are no longer recognized since colonial times. Many of these lands have been given to crony towkay developers & ruling party politicians & their family members, and protests by the deprived landowners have been met with brutal police action. 

"Anang ngelaban perintah", "jangan lawan kerajaan", "don't fight the government" has been drummed into them since the days of the Brookes. 

They thus patiently wait for the broken promises of the ruling party to provide basic needs of electricity, roads & water to be fulfilled even after 50 years yet believe the ruling party when they are told that the opposition is in no position to & cannot fulfil any promises. 

The rural areas do not have access to independent information other than ruling party propaganda. Logistics of campaigning is expensive. The ruling party abuses ALL government staff & machinery even for campaigning. Many constituencies are the size of whole states in Malaya. 

How does the opposition overcome all these problems which are only the tip of the iceberg?

Al Tugauw
Sarawak Headhunter