KUCHING: Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said he is open to discussion on a supposed eviction of some 10,000 villagers from 13 Kedayan-Malay villages in Bekenu.
What discussion? Why only now? Does anyone think that this man is really open to discussion? Or he wants the people to come begging to him so that he can placate them with some devious promises not meant to be fulfilled?
He said although he had yet to hear from the affected villagers, he felt that the best way to resolve the matter was to come and see him and not try any rough stuff with him.
Why shouldn't the people play rough when this is the way they are treated, like illegal squatters and asked to get off their land and leave their houses just before Hari Raya? He has yet to hear? What rubbish! In the first place doesn't he know or are we to believe that he doesn't know?
“Because once you start playing rough, you cut all communication with me. In the end, you still have to communicate with me because I’m the government … whether or not the claim is good (only) then I can consider,” he told reporters at the second day of his Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house at Stadium Perpaduan here yesterday.
Why was there no communication with the affected villagers except for the notice of eviction? So the villagers who have been leaving there for the last 100 years now have to prove their claim? Surely they should have been considered even before any such decision was made? The arrogance of this man seems to know no bounds. Just because he "is the government" does that mean he can do what he likes and treat the people as he likes?
He stressed that there was no way of talking things through if one were to go about the situation in a rough manner.
This doesn't apply to him of course as he can be as rough as he wants to with the people. Try talking to him and see what happens - he will just talk them down roughly. We have seen this many times, and which is why even his ministers and the so-called peoples' representatives are scared shitless of him. What kind of leader is this?
“The government can work out something. If you want to make an appeal, make an appeal. That’s the best way. Tell the story properly,” he added.
Of course the government can work out something, but that is after the fact. Why should it be that the people have to appeal? Why were the interests of the affected villagers not even taken into consideration prior to their land being given to a private developer? WHO IS THIS PRIVATE DEVELOPER ANY WAY?
On Saturday, a group of people from the 13 villages protested a move to evict them from their century-old settlement by a private developer.
They allegedly received a notice on Sept 15 from the company’s lawyers to leave within 14 days.
For them to be so arrogant they must have someone powerful and even more arrogant, like Taib, behind them. Not even their elected representatives nor the idiot 2nd Minister of Resource Planning and Mismanagement knew what what was going on, if they are to be believed.
The affected villagers, as claimed by a group that protested peacefully at Kampung Beraya junction yesterday, are from the villages of Batu Satu, Butir, Kejapil, Keluru Tengah, Keluru Jaya, Subak, Sepurau, Selanyau, Opak, Tusan, Uban, Terahad and Beraya.
The villagers claimed that the area concerned was an old burial ground of their Kedayan Muslim ancestors and that the affected cemeteries are Kubur Islam Kejapil, Kubur Butir, Kubur Sungai Jalil, Uban and Kubur Sungai Payau.
The Kedayans settled in the area sometime in 1910.
By Puvaneswary Devindran, The Borneo Post Online
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