Adenan attracting attention with his pronouncements

KUCHING, Oct 20, 2014: Adenan Satem, who became chief minister on Feb 28 this year, continues to attract attention with his pronouncements.

Political observers are looking at Adenan as being more transparent, politically friendly and a grassroots man.

At a media conference just before he was sworn-in as the fifth chief minister, Adenan (picture) had said that he was open to suggestions and that his administration would be more transparent.

"Judge me on the results, not on the rhetorics," he had told the media. Despite his reminder to the Sarawakians to judge him on the results, the people have not been heard complaining in the press of his pronouncements.

After observing from the behind the scene over many years when he was not a member of the State Cabinet, he knows what to do and not to do, and so far he has not been making decisions not in line with the wishes of the ordinary rakyat.

He has been pretty politically correct with many of his pronouncements which are dear to the hearts of the ordinary people.

Some of his pronouncements, like calling for an increase in oil and gas royalties, have taken the shine out of the Opposition's political cry for more revenue from oil and gas for Sarawak.

His administration has taken the bold step of tabling a resolution in the Sarawak State Assembly in the May 2014 sitting, demanding that the oil and gas royalties for Sarawak be increased from 5% to 20%, something that the previous State administration did not do.

At a dialogue with the people in Samarahan yesterday, Adenan said he would provide the Sarawak State Assembly next month an update on the latest development on the on-going negotiation between the State Government and Petronas on increasing the oil and gas royalties.

The State Assembly is due to meet for eight days beginning on Nov 10.

The oil company, Adenan said, had agreed to increase its contribution to Sarawak, but the state had have yet to finalise how to implement it.

Adenan insisted that substantial percentage of revenue from oil and gas ought to be channelled back to Sarawak because these natural resources are found within the state's territory.

“We want more funds for Sarawak. Currently, the royalties we get from oil and gas is only 5%. We want, if possible, to be given 20 %".

“(After all) the oil and gas (that Petronas obtained) are from here (Sarawak). We don’t want to be spectators. We want to be participants in the oil and gas industry," he said.

Adenan's position on oil and gas royalties has gained the support of the Opposition and civil rights movements, like Sarawak for Sarawakians, Sarawak Autonomy Movement, Sarawak Association of People's Aspirations.

His decisions on the "Allah" issue and the ban on religious extremists from Malaya to come Sarawak were also lauded by the Christians and Christian religious groups.

Adenan had assured that Christians in Sarawak were allowed to use the "Allah" word in their prayers and in churches, despite the federal court's decision to bar the use of the word by a Catholic publication in its Bahasa Malaysia version.

His reason is that the native Christians have been using the word long before Malaysia was formed in 1963 so there is no justification to stop them now. After all, Adenan was educated at a mission school where Bible Knowledge was taught as a subject and yet, he still remains a devout Muslim.

The civil right groups and environmentalists will surely welcome Adenan's pronouncement that he would not issue any more timber licences in line with the government's policy to increase the number of national parks to protect its forests from timber smugglers and the illegal cutting down of trees.

The yearly renewal of the existing timber licences, he assured, would be considered carefully.

“These are the things we are trying to do. Maybe we cannot be successful in one or two years, but sooner or later we will be successful.”

The issuances of licences to companies, mostly crony companies, to log out timbers by the previous administration have been vehemently opposed by the environmentalists and the rural people who are the adversely and directly affected by the logging activities.

Logging activities have been linked to the decline in the fresh fish population due to severe pollution  of the rivers while animal habitats are being destroyed. The rural communities are also deprived of their livelihood from forests.

That Adenan has decided to curb logging activities, both legal and illegal, is a welcome news. Hopefully, he would not be cowed by those powerful timber barons and tycoons into submission.

Perhaps, Adenan has much to do as far as getting rid of or curbing corruption in Sarawak. He had already made it very clear to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) that he would not allow his immediate family members to get state government contracts and state land.

But he needs the strong support of his Cabinet colleagues and the state civil service if his fight against corruption is to succeed.

As of now, none of his Cabinet colleagues have voiced out their support, and the people are still waiting for the ministers' stand on corruption.

Hopefully, Adenan's stand on corruption will not be obstructed. We can recall of a pledge by former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to get rid of corruption and to bring to justice those in high positions suspected to be corrupt and had abused their positions to enrich themselves.

His pledge to take action against the corrupt was one of the reasons why the Barisan Nasional won decisively in the 2004 general elections.

At the end, he failed miserably and in the 2008 general elections, the BN almost lost to Pakatan Rakyat and in 2009, he was forced to step down as prime minister.

Abdullah's failure to get rid of corruption was due his inability to get the full backing of the various factions in Umno, many of them were more keen to see him step down.

What the people in Sarawak want to see is for PBB - the lynchpin of the State BN - and the component parties of the State BN - to fully back Adenan.

He has his valid reason for wanting to curb corruption in Sarawak.

“We don’t want Sarawak to get a bad name as a corrupt state," he declared at the dialogue session yesterday.

We don't know how widespread corruption is in Sarawak, but what we have is mere perception.  And it will remain perception if we don't see the corrupt in high positions being brought to face the full force of the law. And if it is a mere word without taking concrete and positive steps to get rid  the scourge of society.