Shifting Blame – Afraid Jabu’s Fear

By John Riwang <johnriwang@hotmail.com>

There was a time late last year when The Borneo Post Online decided to be on hiatus. The message “Our website is currently being upgraded. We apologize for the inconvenience” became its standard headline for over a month.

Because of their downgraded professionalism that desperately needed to be upgraded, a penniless boy like me had to spend my precious RM1 to buy the ‘hard copy’ version of the Borneo Post. What a pity. ‘A pity’ not because I was not able to gain valuable information from the local paper – that’s because it doesn’t have any. Rather I was deprived of my daily doses of laughter from reading the foolish statements made by our politicians.

But worry no longer,

I am a member of the human race!

By Sim Kwang Yang/SKY

One of the most virulent toxins in Malaysian politics is racial and ethnic politics. Politicians and activists of various ethnic origins still dream about the unity of their race.

I can understand their aspiration for unity, though I disagree with them. They think that once their race is united, they will have greater political representation, and their race will enjoy greater socio-economic benefits.

But 46 years after independence, the facts speak for themselves in Sarawak. Despite the dominance of PBB in more than four decades within the Barisan Nasional, the ordinary Malays and the Melanaus in the coastal regions of our vast state are still dirt poor. Although the Dayaks are well represented in the ruling coalition by the four Dayak components, the Dayak people are still dirt poor, by and large. In sharp contrast, how many of these ethnic representatives in the state assembly and the state cabinet have not grown opulently fat?