Rejang Port Authority, another scandal not smaller than PKFZ

Lat week I challenged RPA's Chairman, YB Vincent Goh, to resign from the Chair of the port because of his failure to protect the interest of the Port Authority and his failure to safeguard the interests of the people in central region of Sibu.

The height of the Lebaan bridge of 20 meters is insufficient to allow oil vessels and bigger container ships to dock at RPA.That means bigger vessels will instead be docking at Tg. Manis port and our goods will be directed to Tg. Manis before we use containers to ship them to Sibu. The cost of each container is reported at RM 1000.00 and without doubt that would be paid by the end consumer( people of Sibu, upper Rejang and smaller townships around Sibu.

If Vincent God feels that he can remain quite and let the matter dies down by itself then he can not be more wrong. Under the DAP's watch,the scandal will not be go unexposed. We will do every thing we can to bring the scandals to light as a lot of the people are being kept in the dark.

A few local newspapers did not publish the news last week due to pressure from certain quarters and that shows how cowardice is the BN and its controlled media. But we are ready to use other resources if the print media is not doing its parts in exposing the issues that affect everyone of us in sibu and other townships.

"Malaysia Zero-burning policy." Peter Chin on 15th August 2006

Above are some of the photos taken yesterday by us and NGO to show the effect of open-burning.

"For years, fires ignited by palm oil plantation workers in Indonesia to get rid of oil palm wastes had contributed to the spread of cross-boundary haze. Malaysia, a few years ago, banned these burnings in its plantations."
15 August 2006

Peter Chin-Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities

Sibu peoples have every right to be angry that the Natural Resources and Environment Board had issued permits for the open-burning in Sibu in defiance of the ban imposed by the federal government. The air quality must has reached a hazardous level yesterday as the photos above show.

We have had a press conference today urging the state government to immediately put a ban on any open-burning for the plantation industry. There simply isn't any "acceptable" standard when it comes to open burning, it causes health hazards as well as environmental destruction that is far beyond the extra cost of using other methods of handling the plantation waste.

Look at the open-burning in Sibu Yesterday by some plantations and we will get a feel of the truthfulness of the above statement by the government. Unless of course Peter Chin can come out to clarify that Sarawak is exempted from the above "Zero open-burning" policy and that the SUPP is in support of the open-burning policy.

David Wong

04-04-2009

War zone country Vs Space programme

To many people in the developed world, the photos shown here would project images of war-torn and poverty-stricken countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, Sri Lanka or Burma. Hell no, these photos could not be taken in a rich and prosperous country that has just launched its own space programme and sent an astronaut into space like Malaysia!

If the first Malaysian astronaut was lucky enough to see these images from space, would he believe that these are the images of Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia? Would he wonder that how could these be the images in our country that boasted "Malaysia Boleh" and with the tallest buildings(Petronas twin towers) and F1 circuit (Sepang) and space programme (undisclosed amount)that sent him into space.

Our astronaut would think that the people who live here must be living on the trees and without education and bare-footed. It might even crossed his brilliant mind that maybe only illegals live in a place like this as the BN spent lavishly in development programmes every year. The auditor-general report 2006 revealed that we are actually the richest in the world where the government departments spent without limits and could afford to pay RM 5741 on a car-jack worth RM 50. Our finance ministry could pay-off bills worth 900 million ringgit and could not accounted for the physical bills.

Then, what went wrong when the realities of the day are shown in front of our eyes with longhouses burnt (quite a norm in Sarawak) to the ground in minutes and homeless children and old folks begging for the basic like food and shelters that might elude them after all, and roads (few kilometers away from Sibu town center) that could only be found in war-torn countries.

The BN leaders would say"Who say we are backward? They must be the supporters and leaders of the DAP who are against development! These people ought to be punished for tarnishing the good reputation of the country by publishing these kind of photos on the blog to show the whole world. Without them, the world would not have known the truth and reality ".The Chief Minister of Sarawak was reported by the press that the opposition who is against space programme would like the people to live in the "Era of the Dinosaurs".

The BN government promised development and fairness for all Malaysian. BN boasted its administration as the "model" for the developing countries and showed the world how well we have done and how mush we have achieved within a short period of 50 years (44 actually) of Merdeka. The leaders of the BN always compare Malaysia with the African countries and those countries with natural disaster such as Volcano and typhoon activities and tell the rakyat how "fortunate" we are living in Malaysia. Some BN and SUPP leaders went onto the stage and tell the people to be thankful to the BN and lecture the people if the poll results were not to their satisfaction.

Welcome to Sarawak, Malaysia!
Malaysia Boleh!
God bless our country!

David Wong
DAP Sarawak publicity sec.,
23-10-2007

Where is my birthday present?

“It’s my 44th birthday, where is my present?” Sarawak asked. Sarawak has been asking the same questioned since 16th September 1963 and no reply came from the federal government and through its cronies in the Sarawak government, the question has been depressed for the last 44 years.

As the BN government prepares to launch its 50th Merdeka, it forgot the history of the formation of the country, namely Malaysia, or else it should really celebrate our 44th birthday as a nation. History pointed out that the Malay Federation achieved its independent on the 31st of August 1957 without Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore.

Tunku Abdul Rahman then called for the formation of a bigger Malaya in Singapore in 1961, which eventually led to the formation of Malaysia. On the 16th September1963 Sarawak, Sabah, Singapore and the Malay Federation formed a new entity, and Malaysia was born. We did not join the Malay Federation and thus we are of equal partners on equal footing. However, it was not so as the federal treats Sarawak as the lesser brother and it has since been left far behind in term of development and opportunities. Let us take a comparison between Sarawak and the peninsular, nobody would question that we are some 20 years behind in term of development.

It is important to put history right on what was distorted by certain groups as history would put everything into the right prospective, including the Sarawak identity and what it truly deserve. Thus the question “where is my birthday present?” Some might ask, “why asking for the present?” The answer lies in the heart of most Sarawakian as we felt that we have been treated like the “adopted sons” and since we can’t demand and we can’t threaten, than at least we can beg or may be we even lost the right to beg?

Independence means more than shouting slogans or playing lips services and patriotism is more than flag waving on the street tonight or joins the parades at the Merdeka stadium. It means liberty to search for equal opportunity and happiness, freedom to speak out for our rights, daring to take the political reform necessary and equality for every Malaysian. Let all of us be the “prince” or “princess” of this land and let nobody subject to any kind of discrimination. All of us can play a part in taking this country to a greater height and let our Jalur Gemilang(national flag)fly high not only on the lamp post or poles or buildings but also in the heart of every Malaysian. Then everyone can truly shout “Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!” from the bottom the heart and our forefathers will smile down on us.

David Wong on the eve of the 50th Merdeka
30-08-2007