State Assembly (2nd) DUN speech

State Assemblyman for Batu Kitang, Lo Khere Chiang

Honourable Datuk Deputy Speaker

Thank you for the honor and the opportunity to debate Yang Amat Berhormat, the Chief Minister’s address at this second meeting of the First session of the 18th Sarawak State Legislative Assembly. I support and congratulate Yang Amat  Berhormat, the Chief Minister’s articulate speech, his presentation of an inclusive budget covering all aspects of the state’s welfare, social and economic development, from education to tourism, waste management and flooding. A major sum has also been allocated to the state rural transformation program.

Autonomy for Sarawak

Honourable Datuk Deputy Speaker,

We have just seen an increase in toll from as much as RM1 to RM5 in Semenanjung Malaysia. It suddenly dawned upon me how fortunate we Sarawakians are. The construction of the Pan Borneo highway costs RM16 billion and yet, we will not have to pay a single toll fee when we do eventually cruise along this highway.

Thankfully, we have our Chief Minister who has, on our behalf successfully negotiated with our Prime Minister to write off toll payment in Sarawak. This shows how important it is for Sarawakians to stick together and pursue Sarawak’s autonomy.

i respect and admire most of our ADUNs from the opposite camp, with high caliber lawyers from both sides of the divide including every one of us ADUNS here, we must all continue to forge ahead under the leadership of our Chief Minister, to pursue our rights within Malaysia.

No one will hand over Sarawak’s autonomy to us on a silver platter. That's for sure. We, Sarawakians, have to be more proactive about it. However, to do this, we need to stay united to be strong enough to get what belongs to us. We have seen how Sabahan politicians are reacting very firmly and surely in tandem with Sarawak to demand for the rights of Sarawak and Sabah to be returned to us.

I have unequivocal support for the Chief Minister in a statement he made 3 weeks ago when he says a motion will be tabled by our Deputy Chief Minister which will cover all aspects of Sarawak's rights under the Malaysia Agreement.

However, I firmly support our Chief Minister’s politically sound and wise decision not to table a motion this time round simply because the Prime Minister has agreed to discuss Sabah and Sarawak’s rights under the Malaysian Agreement during his recent speech in an event in Sabah.

Tuan Speaker, successful negotiation has never been an easy task. One needs to establish good thinking, tack and skill. I believe that our Chief Minister has brought us this far because of his respected leadership, tact and hard work in doing what is right for all Sarawakians. Let us support him and put our trust in him to continue our quest.

I appeal to our Honourable YB for Pending and Sentosa not to use rhetoric to fish for votes, to confuse and mislead the rakyat, just like the playcard we see this morning as we drive up to Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN). Tuan speaker, Honourable member for Kota Sentosa allegations of the RM250 million are unsubstantial and cannot be true because under the Financial Procedure Act, 1957(Section 4), Treasury Instructions 6(2), “No money has gone missing because all the money unused reverb back to the Government”. (Page 56 of Hansard dated 21st of November 2016).

Distribution of Gas Bill 2016 

During the debate on the Distribution of Gas Bill 2016 we witnessed Honourable member for Pending and Honourable member for Kota Sentosa contradicting one another.

Honourable member for Pending said, quote "I called on the State Government to take back all the right as we got to remember what is ours is ours!! It did not matter whether the natural resources is under the sea bed, under the river bed, under the mountain bed, under your bed, under my bed all the natural resources belongs to Sarawak” unquote.

In contrast, instead of saying yes to the Gas Bill, YB Sentosa said, “we as Sarawakians would very much love to hear statements like that. This belongs to us. That belongs to us. All these are ours. As a Sarawakian we like to hear that. But is that the true position of the law? Do we have the rights, the exclusive rights over the oil and gas in our water or on our land or under the land surface?”

Such pessimistic and negative words from a two term YB in Sentosa. This clearly shows one thing and that is both Honourable YBs for Pending and Sentosa’s interest is to object without taking into consideration how Sarawakians would benefit from the passing of the Distribution of Gas Bill, 2016. Their main objective was to make as much noise as possible, to the point that they did not even realize that they were contradicting one another.

 

Tuan Speaker, I am proud to call myself a Sarawakian as we, Sarawakians have shown the world how tightly knit we can be when we stand together as one people despite our diversity in race and religion. Only a Sarawakian will be able to understand this unique closeness within the people here regardless of race or religion and hence I pride myself on being a Sarawakian. We are non-violent, peaceful and friendly folks.

Role of The National Registration department

Tuan Speaker, I am proud to call myself a Sarawakian as we, Sarawakians have shown the world how tightly knit we can be when we stand together as one people despite our diversity in race and religion. Only a Sarawakian will be able to understand this unique closeness within the people here regardless of race or religion and hence I pride myself on being a Sarawakian. We are non-violent, peaceful and friendly folks.

Having said that, this is precisely why it came as a shock to me to find that children born here can be declared stateless despite one parent being a Sarawakian. I have come across many such children whose parents have sought my assistance to help their children to get proper documents for them. Despite each having different stories on why their children are without documents, there is always a thread of similarity running in all the cases and that common problem is that one parent is a foreigner.

Tuan Speaker, we cannot stop people from getting married to different races and nationalities any more than we can stop the sun from shining.

But to let these children suffer because one of their parents is a foreigner is not part of the inclusive culture that I know of in Sarawak.

I give you a classic example of two brothers aged 25 and 27. Both were born in The Sarawak General hospital and one of the parents is a foreigner. Both their birth certificates were registered late, a miscalculation of a parent which resulted in the family paying a heavy price for it. The National Registration Department has declined time and again to give them proper and complete documents.

One of the brothers dropped out of school as there were many instances where his parents were asked to produce all the proper and right documents. The other one managed to complete Form Five. Now both are working. Both were deprived of all the benefits which many of us have come to take for granted: having a Mycard , passports, bank accounts and anything that required an identity card to process. The two were at the mercy of their employers as they were not allowed to contribute to EPF, SOSCO or income tax. 

These are the official problems faced by the brothers but a rather more overwhelming question is: what of the social stigma they have to face on a daily onslaught ? The future is a bleak one for these brothers. Both will not be allowed to marry as they do not have the documents to be registered and if anyone of them has a child out of wedlock, the child will suffer the exact same fate.

There are many cases in the town area and I cannot help but wonder about the silent majority of these cases, the thousands suffering in obscurity in the ulu and rural areas. How are these children going to face the world if they were to venture out into the cities for better prospects without any of these valid documents?

Tuan Speaker, children born in Sarawak with a parent being a Sarawakian should be considered one of us. It is logical as they will want to study here, work, make a life and eventually build a family here.

I have personally been to the National Registration department a couple of years back to enquire about a young boy’s application and was told that the decision is in the hands of PutraJaya and that they have to wait. All this time, all we can do is make enquiry after enquiry and then being told to wait; usually for a very long time.

Decisions made by PutraJaya regarding these cases are too slow as we can see in the case of these two brothers; they are both in their 20s and in a few years, they will hit their 30s. They have to struggle without valid documents all this time and will continue to suffer this indignity unless we make their case known and give them a helping hand.

Tuan Speaker, all these procedures and the decision making that comes with it should be done in Sarawak. How can we possibly expect PutraJaya to know of the sentiments of each and every case. Semanjung Malaysia has so many of their own to deal with and so, understandably, each case in Sarawak does not come with a priority tag.

The Sarawak government should have the right to take care of the citizens of Sarawak as long as one parent is from Sarawak. There is no need to go across vast expanse of land and water to get that done in PutraJaya when the Sarawak Government is fully prepared and perfectly capable of handling it. There is a need for urgency because as of right now, there are too many innocent children out there in limbo.

I am very glad that the Minister of Welfare, Women and Community has been assigned to head a task force and that the decision should be made by the State Government.

Hawker issues

Tuan Speaker, I wish to bring your attention to the many hawker issues in Padawan area. There are almost 1,000 of these hawkers daily; 80% of whom are illegal and spread out in all corners of Padawan at Batu 3, Batu 7, Batu 10, Siburan, Beratok, Tapah, Matang, Telaga Air, City Mall and MJC etc.

There is no denying that these are poor people out to look for ways to supplement their livelihood. These villagers can be seen early in the morning carrying baskets of vegetables to trade near the roadside or where there are people. By noon, most of them are gone. 

Many complained that it is an eyesore and that it is dangerous especially for some who plied their goods near the roadside. No matter what was done, they will come back another day as they do need the extra cash they earn. The hawkers ply their trade come rain or shine. On rainy days, many will have raincoats or umbrellas over them for a little cold comfort just so that they can carry on selling their produce through the rain.

It is therefore important that future projects must have space allocated for big markets. In Stutong when the market was built, there was a big uproar over the location. Over time, demand for trading places grew and today, trading spaces in Stutong has a 100% occupancy rate.

We must, therefore, plan a market for future projects in areas like MJC. At the moment there are about 500 hawkers trading on the car parks there from every Thursday noon to Saturday.

Housing estates are mushrooming in the MJC area. At the moment, shop owners there allow these hawkers to trade there as business is slow in MJC. There would come a day when they would not want to see hawkers in front of their shop lots. Then the trouble will start. 

Housing all these hawkers under one roof and legalizing them is the only way to solve the problem. But we need space and a conducive area to house them. That way, we can ensure that these hawkers are legal and that the place is kept clean with proper planning. We cannot wait until the town grows beyond the stage where there is no viable space for a market to meet the day to day needs of the people. By then it will be a lot harder to find a space for a big market. Planning has to start well before the town grows too big. Potential space for a market has to be identified and gazetted. The space needs to be gazetted because the land will become too valuable for a market purpose by the time the town grows too big. A market is however a basic necessity to ensure that the daily needs of a growing population is met.

Tuan Speaker, we have also identified an ideal place for a market along Jalan Keretapi at the DBKU golf range which is 7.51 acres in size. There is a river running beside it and across the river on the other side, there is a piece of state land which is 10.4 acres and which in the MPP area. The two places could be linked with a bridge and with proper planning, this will serve as a good market area for a large community in both DBKU and MPP areas. 

Both the DBKU and MPP can join forces to take the market under their wings and I hope that our State Government will consider this proposal.

Wholesale Market

Honourable Datuk Deputy Speaker, Another teething issue is a proper space for a wholesale market. The wholesale market association has been requesting the State government to provide them with a suitable place to trade.

At the moment, they are trading at night at Stutong market which is not a conducive place to traders. There is no proper roofing or lights. On rainy days, these people would be soaked to the skin.

Should an area be approve to house these wholesalers in Padawan area, the Padawan Municipal Council will be happy to assist the State government in the proper management of the wholesalers in these areas. 

Fish machines

Finally, Tuan Speaker, Crime situation in Kuching especially house breaking, theft and robbery is still rampant. I am made to understand that a lot of petty theft has been linked to illegal gambling and drug abuses.

Many residents in Padawan have voiced their concern on the number of ‘fish machines’ that has sprouted over a short period of time in Padawan.

I know of people, young and old addicted to these games and they were caught in huge debts due to their addiction to the games on these fish machines. I believe that this unhealthy addiction to the games is the root cause of many social ills.

Some have no choice but to resort to thieving even from their own families to feed their bad habits. The only solution to this is for the government to ban the import of these machines on any premise, be it private or public. 

The Registrar of Society is issuing Club licenses but some of these applicants abused the license to operate these fish machines in their outlets, which is not right at all.

At the moment, Padawan Municipal Council and the state ruling in general only allows such machines in shopping centers where there should be zero tolerance for gambling activities because shopping centers are supposedly purely for family entertainment purposes.

Thank you, Tuan Speaker.