Buku Harapan: Sarawak Will Always Reject Mahathir
Sarawak is straggling behind and there is nobody else who can shoulder the blame except Mahathir.
Tajuddin Rosli
While people of Peninsula may be drooling over Mahathir’s pseudo dreams for a better nation, the manifesto is nothing less than a joke for us here in Sarawak.
West Malaysians have conveniently forgotten about Mahathir’s style of leadership. If they hope to see a change in the country by bringing Mahathir back to the helm in place of Najib, they are living in denial. Mahathir’s 22 years as the prime minister are the darkest years in the history of Malaysia.
Sarawak is straggling behind and there is nobody else who can shoulder the blame except Mahathir. We were doing fine before Mahathir came in and destroyed Borneo. West Malaysians may be applauding Mahathir for his mega development projects, but have you ever wondered how did he fund those projects?
Our oil revenue and state’s wealth was stolen and robbed to finance Mahathir’s mega ideas in Peninsula. While Peninsula blossomed, Sarawak fell behind thanks to Mahathir. Not only did Mahathir steal our oil but imposed a 58 cent per litre tax on our own refined petrol, a practice that was abolished in 2004 after Mahathir retired. Finally, under Najib’s governance we got our own oil company Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros).
In 1980, Mahathir amended the Merchant Ordinance and introduced a Cabotage Policy. Under the cabotage policy, ships from foreign countries are prohibited to transport between ports in Malaysia, which can only be done by licensed Malaysian ships. As a result, goods in Sabah and Sarawak are 20-30% more expensive than those in Peninsula. The cost of transporting a container from Hong Kong to Port Klang is about RM200. The same container costs RM2400+ when shipped out of Port Klang to Kota Kinabalu.
Unreasonable excuses are given by ship-owners for the huge muck-up in transportation price to Borneo. Mahathir’s cabotage policy only fulfilled the financial greed of his cronies; bearing in mind his son owned shipping companies then. This lopsided policy was finally scrapped out in June 2017 under the leadership of Najib.
The infamous Bakun Dam failure is a feather in Mahathir’s cap. Thousand of hectares of Sarawak land were transferred under ownership of the federal government. Thanks to efforts by the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem, Najib’s government agreed to return back the entire equity interest of Sarawak Hidro Sdn. Bhd (SHSB), the owner and operator of Bakun hydroelectric plant, back to the Sarawak state.
Under Mahathir’s leadership, tolls (the Lanang Bridge, the ASEAN Bridge, the Tun Salahuddin toll) grew – all reversed under Najib’s leadership. Now, we can be proud with the construction of a Pan Borneo Highway that will be toll-free as it is Mahathir-free.
In 1984, Mahathir amended the constitution to increase the power of Syariah courts by introducing three years jail term, RM 5000 fine, and canning punishment. In 1989, he amended the constitution again to extend the RUU355 to Sabah and Sarawak.
What is Mahathir speaking about now on returning back the rights of Sabah and Sarawak as per the 1963 Malaysia Agreement? He is the one stole from us and now is giving back what is rightfully ours by laying the blame on Najib?
In eight years, Sarawak has seen more progress than it has ever witnessed during Mahathir’s 22 years.
If West Malaysians cite the 1MDB scandal as the biggest excuse to overthrow Najib for Mahathir, we people of Borneo have way better reasons to choose Najib over Mahathir anytime.
