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I have just returned from a 10-day visit and stay in Sarawak. I was there to help a friend as a polling and counting agent or Paca. That was the easiest and most satisfactory part of my stay; the voting was conducted with satisfaction at my polling station. I was only an objective observer that rules were followed without any bias by those who act as independent agents; namely the Election Commission (EC) and their appointees.

Having started work with the PM’s Department in 1972; what bothered me most about this visit however was ‘the abject failure of development for the needs of the interiors of Sarawak’. If Abdul Razak Hussein were alive today; he would faint. I dare say that the current prime minister does not yet understand the heart of the second prime minister of Malaysia.

My first assignment in the Implementation Coordination Development Administrative Unit (ICDAU) of the PM’s Department was to visit every district in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang and ensure that ‘rural postal services reached them’, as the then-PM had promised that it would be available to them. And my finding was that the ‘Pos Bergerak’ had reached them, even if not as many times the people might have wanted.

Meaning of development

Development is never ever only the material needs of a community; although these are basic needs. Even Maslow states that above basic and security needs are higher order needs. Unfortunately, after visiting 12 rural longhouses in the Baram Valley; I concluded that it is not needs but greed of the current system of governance which defined ‘the strategic development agenda for the last 53 years in these villages’.

For a visitor like me, it appears as if the people in these villages and their needs are qualified by the greed of the business interests and motives of those bigger and larger agents with resources and greater capacities.

For example, thousands and thousands of hectares of land are made available for timber extraction and palm oil cultivation by private interests. But, whom do these private interests serve? They serve the greed of the rich and powerful and not the needs of the ordinary people.

From my observation, the quality of life of the community in these villages is as bad if not worse than that of our peninsular villages in the early 60s. They do not have basic roads, water, electricity or means of telecommunication with the outside world; other than timber tracks which are not government-built.

The Malaysian vision under the Bangsa Malaysia agenda was to be a developed nation-state by 2020. That means a developed nation in our own mould and for our own people, by 2020. I am sorry to say, even if CM Adenan Satem spends 24 hours a day working hard, and spending all the revenue the state has, this vision cannot yet become a reality by 2020.

The majority of the villages I visited did not even have their basic needs met; they fall way below our basic definitions of needs in peninsular Malaysia. Their quality of life is not acceptable to me. But why is this so?

The real NEP

The first and most important agenda of the New Economic Policy (NEP) was always to eradicate poverty wherever it was found in Malaysia. The Bumiputera Agenda of 30 percent ownership of wealth was always a secondary agenda. Even if it was considered primary, all these rural villages in Sarawak are inhabited by the natives of Sarawak, and they are already defined as ‘bumiputeras’.

So, my advice and congratulatory note to Adenan Satem is to deliver on the promises you already made. You wanted the people of Sarawak to give Team Adenan a chance and they did; overwhelmingly. Can you now deliver on the promises you all made?

Please emulate the father’s model of development do not copy that of the son from peninsular Malaysia. Please recognise that you have one chance to also become the CM of Sarawak who can be known as the Father of Rural Development. Just study the history of Abdul Razak’s successes and simply avoid the failures and you will leave a credible history and legacy for posterity.

No room or time for failure

CM Adenan; there is no room or time for failure for your one chance people-ordained and God-approved opportunity. Please deliver on them. My unsolicited advice therefore is the following:

1. Reject the politics of greed and rape of natural resources for the benefit of the few.

2. Reject the politics of divide and rule; where even for a ketua kampung appointment by local government does not accept the will of the community on the ground.

3. Please focus on basic clean water, uninterrupted electricity and basic communication, including internet and telephone services. The electrical connectivity is atrocious at village levels.

4. Do not abuse native customary rights (NCR) lands any more and respect all their traditional rights and customs.

5. Respect their historical customary boundaries of village and common properties and gazette these.

6. Consider how to evolve and grow Sarawak’s version of Mara (for education) and Felda (for land development) but ensure these are done on cooperative models of shared ownership and not allow them to be personalised or privatised.

7. Make Sarawak the perfect model of Bangsa Malaysia wherein religion is not deployed as a means to divide and rule but to respect, accept, and celebrate as a community.

Change is in the air

The politics of divide and rule and the rape model of development have their days numbered. People the world over are rejecting these models of development and governance. Sarawak cannot become an exception to this law of natural change and improvement. Regardless of what you deliver, I predict that by the next election; everything will have to change, and therefore what will history record that Team Adenan delivered.

Sir, it is your call really. May God bless Sarawak.