Time for Jabu to be realistic

News commentary by James Tegas

In his winding up speech at the just concluded  State Assembly sitting, Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu Numpang ridiculed Sarawak DAP over a Kanowit gathering in 1996, purportedly to oppose the development of native customary rights (NCR) - an event that happened some 18  years ago.

 

Alfred Jabu Numpang using his arms to measure the size of a rubber tree

Because of this gathering, Jabu accused the DAP of suppressing and oppressing the Dayaks. Mind you, Jabu has been repeating this ridiculous gathering  at every sitting of the State Assembly over the past 10 years, prompting  Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen to describe Jabu as a minister having no new ideas, and it is time for him to step down gracefully.

I am sure that other Barisan Nasional lawmakers were irritated by this ridiculous repetition. One BN state lawmaker  event claimed that he suffered mentally because he has a Jabu phobia.

Jabu, who is also PBB deputy president, poked fun at the DAP for fielding Dayak candidates in the last state and general elections, describing them as window dressing. In a verbal war with the DAP lawmakers, Jabu said he was not a coward to face the DAP in the next state election, that is, if no-nonsense Chief Minister Adenan Satem still wants him to defend Layar (again).

The DAP might not have won seats in the elections in the rural areas, but the party is gaining momentum with its Impian Sarawak programmes in the rural areas, targeting mainly the Iban constituencies, including Jabu's Layar constituency.

Jabu also had the audacity to laugh at the DAP for nominating a respected and former head of the Iban service of RTM, Thomas Tegong Laka, as a candidate to contest for  a senatorship in the State Assembly.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with the nomination because Tegong is very much qualified.

 If we want to laugh, then we should laugh at Jabu himself because he voted his wife, Empiang, to be a senator before. It was all in the family - dominating  all the key political posts in PBB and Sarawak, as though no one else is qualified. Why must Jabu's relatives and family members be occupying key posts in BN and PBB? Are there no more qualified people around?

While Jabu is "good" at ridiculing DAP and PKR in his winding up speech, he conveniently forgot to address the failures of the Rural Growth Centres which were highlighted in the Auditor-General Report 2013.

Why? It is possible that he didn't want the state lawmakers to know. But there is no need to hide because the AG Report is for all to see and read. Or maybe, he didn't want the rural rakyat to know the failures of RGCs, which are under Jabu's Ministry of Rural Development. If you want to make fun of the DAP and PKR, you must also be daring enough to admit your failures. For goodness sake, please stop talking about kepayang. You have been talking about it for as long as I can remember. And you are still talking about conducting research on kepayang. Why does it take so long for the research to produce results?

Batu Lintang state lawmaker See Chee How, in his Budget speech, took a swipe at the Rural Development Ministry for its unsatisfactory implementation of the RGCs.

See had said the AG had highlighted the delays in the implementation of RGCs, lack of response from the local community towards RGCs because of the locality issues as well as poor facilities maintenance.

Hence, the time has come for Jabu to step aside so better qualified person can be appointed as deputy chief minister and PBB deputy president.

He has been a deputy chief minister since 1974 - or 40 years ago - and his achievements (if there is any) are for all to see.