ELECTION PETITION AGAINST YB CHONG CHIENG JEN

It is unprecedented for a voter to file an election petition because in the past such petitions were normally filed by candidates involved in the elections. I respect the right of Mr. Kho Whai Phiaw to file the petition but, in normal circumstances, if the petitioner concerned was a candidate from a political party, there were many things that need to be considered before filing the petition. The most important consideration is the ground reaction to the petition, that is, whether the voters could accept for such a decision by the candidate and the Party that sponsored the candidate.

My information is that Mr. Kho Whai Phiaw was an active member of an opposition political party holding some important posts in a Party Branch in Batu Lintang, and if that was true, it would not be in the interest of the Opposition for Mr. Kho Whai Phiaw to have filed the petition. To fight the petition will not only cause much mental agony to the contestants, but, also to the supporters of both sides and in a court case the outcome of the battle was always unpredictable. At the same time, SUPP although the opponent of DAP in Bandar Kuching, would also not benefit from this court battle either.

At this moment, there are speculations that a ruling party in the BN is also behind the petition and this will not be good for the political party concerned.

In the event, YB Chong Chieng Jen fails in his defence to the petition, the loss would not only affect the DAP, but, also the people of Kuching. YB Chong is a key player in DAP Sarawak and had performed well in past years as our MP and it could be a nice thing if he could be allowed to continue his work as usual. With that in mind may the people in Kuching stay calm and give moral support to YB Chong and DAP in defending the Petition, in which we are confident to overcome.

In the event, there could be a by-election as a result of this petition, we are confident not only in retaining Bandar Kuching, but be returned with a bigger majority.

CRIME SITUATION – WHO TO BLAME?

Security problem in the country is not a new thing, but, when the situation got worse, we were always assured that there were people pointing fingers at others and that scapegoat has to be found. While the control of crime situation is the work of the police, but, we should not blame the police alone for all weaknesses. The BN government should not avoid responsibility of this weak security that caused crimes to be rampant. The police were there only to implement security policies of the government of the day. We cannot expect a police force with a strength of about 7% out of slightly over 100,000 personnel to guard at every home and corner of the street. The Police Force lacked equipment and only very recently was there massive purchase of bullet proof vests for use of police personnel in crime prone areas. Yet we can’t see any policemen, if any at all, in Sarawak had benefited this. The shortage of manpower, equipment and logistics to combat crime and mismanagement of manpower in the Police Force had been brought by DAP many times in the past in both Parliament and in the State Legislative Assemblies, but, the government had kept a deaf ear by failing to reorganize manpower deployment and conduct proper recruitment of personnel to combat crime in the street.

To combat crime, not only must the nation have adequate manpower, but, logistics and deployment of police personnel must be properly managed. Therefore, there is no reason why this government still allowed the Administration Department and the Special Branch Department together with the General Operation Forces (GOF) to take away most of the manpower of the Police Force. Is this not mismanagement of manpower resources? The manpower in these three Branches should be redeployed to strengthen the Crime Investigation Department. You just cannot allow the few of these personnel to tackle the increasing crime in the country and now put the blame on the Police Force alone. It is a policy that went wrong that caused crime to increase and that cause the ineffectiveness in crime detection and prevention. To cry foul against police officers will not solve the problem, but, will only demoralize them. When these policemen are demoralized, they will not then do a proper job and with this crime situation will get worse. The authority that should be blamed was the government itself for its unsound security policy because as a saying says, “There are no bad soldiers, but, there are bad generals!”.

Our country is rich and could afford to spend millions of ringgit to send a medical doctor without any qualification in space science to the outer space, but, still refused or could not find adequate fund to recruit and train first class Police Force. Only about a week ago, the Badawi government is thinking of sending a second spaceman, but, had not given a thought about security problem despite rising crime rates.

SUPP is in the government and should not blame the police alone, but, should have the courage to tell the government where went wrong. To blame the police alone will not solve the problem and to shift the blame and find a scapegoat will make the matter an unending problem for the country. They must also come with constructive ideas and not simply shift the blame to the police alone, after all the problems were caused by the government of which SUPP is a component party.

The Crime Index showed an increase of crime activities from 156,316 case in the year 2003 to 226,836 cases in the year 2006 and this showed a sharp increase of about 45.1%

When Chinese and Indian youths wanted to join the Police Force, the normal answer we got from the Ministers were that, these Chinese and Indian youths were not interested to join the Police Force. If this was true, then, what steps or policy the government had in enticing these Chinese and Indian youths to join the Police Force? When asked, I was told in the DUN that that there was no necessity to man the police pondoks for the time being, but, of course I disagreed. I pursued the matter with the present Officer-in-Charge of Police District, Kuching, sometime ago and was told that he could not man the pondok as being lack of manpower and logistics. Police pondoks in Tabuan Jaya, Hui Sing Garden and Kota Sentosa had in the past years been left unattended by police while a police pondok in Kenyalang Park had been demolished and replaced with a Parking Ticket Purchasing Booth.

In combating crimes the attitude of the public and police officers both played important part. Most often than not members of the public, especially, from the Chinese community were reluctant to go to police stations to report incidences of crimes and to assist police investigations. This was due to the fact that it was difficult for them to communicate with police officers in the police stations as most of these officers could not understand Chinese and also spoke very little English. There were cases that reports were not properly taken due to miscommunications or communication problems which at times landed the complainants in police lockups for crime themselves never committed.

Such incidences of members of public being detained had to a certain extent made members of the public reluctant to report incidences of crimes to the police. This in the end would result in wrong planning and wrong crime prevention strategy to be taken by the police and this will therefore would cause crime perpetrators not or never will be caught.

Questions to Dewan - DUN Sitting 5th -14th May, 2008

Notice of the sitting of the Dewan Undangan Negeri had been issued by the Dewan Secretary that the sitting will be from 5th - 14th May, 2008. As usual, YBs are expected to submit to the Dewan Secretary a maximum total of 10 questions to be answered by the ministers during the sitting. It is hoped that the ministers would come out with detailed answers and not try to avoid their responsibilites by slip shots answers like in previous sittings. The quality of answers to the questions by ministers were much desired and their poor and incomplete answers had reflected the quality of minsters under Taib Administration. Recently, Taib was said wanted to reschuffle his cabinet. Are the present cabinent ministers a bunch of inefficient trustees of the people?

What I am going to say is that to develop this State, we need not only visionary, but, also responsible, intelligent and hardworking Ministers that could keep abreast with world development and could bring Sarawak on competitive edge at global stage.

Recently, we have heard and read in papers that a number of YBs houses were broken into and it seems that robbers and thieves were always having a field day. Now, it is important for the ministers to provide answers where went wrong with the BN government's security policy and policing system. We all know that the Police Department lacked manpower and despite this, officers of the Police Department seems to have worked very hard. Many suspects were arrested by the police each day in the course of ensuring our streets free from crime and people safe to go out during day and night. However, as a matter of concern personally, I received too many complaints about arrests made by police officers that failed to see suspects charged in court. These suspects were either released unconditionally due to insufficient evidence against them or due to wrong persons being put under arrest. Whether this was intentional or otherwise only the police officers and those arrested knew what in actual fact went on. Another bad part about such arrest was also that many of those arrested were subjected to "roadshow" extension of their remand or police bail. Those who were subjected to remand could easily find themselves being re-arrested outside the courtroom once they were released by the court. For those who were on police bail, they usually found themselves being called to the police station to extend their police bail and such extensions of bail many not end for months to come and even years until everybody forgot about it!

The provision of police bail under law usually was abused by many police officers. As I understand, the bail book could be made available to all or most investigating officers and I used to see police officers carrying police bail books to court to give bail to suspects. There should be proper auditing and control of these police bail books. Such bail books could easily be abused for some personal gain. Public should be informed that in non-bailable offences, only the Officer-in-Charge of the Police District could issue bail. Therefore, not all police officers could issue police bail. Not event Officer-in-Charge of other Police Districts should be allowed to issue such police bail.

Question is put to the Dewan concerning police arrests and we should know how successful the police was in the past in arresting the actual culprits that perpetrate crime in the State. We don't want the police department to come out with statistics showing that they had done good work, but, in actual fact not. This is in the hope that remedial measures could be formulated so that there no more be abuse of power and unlawful arrest. What we don't want to see is for some officers not going after the real culprits, but, just to get someone out there to satisfy the boss and the public that arrests had been made on a certain crime. If this was the trend, then, the real culprits who scot free from police net will become more brave to commit further crime. Now, these criminals outside there not only became more daring, but, knew their choice of target.

In my question to the Dewan, I also brought up a pre-election "spice" by the then mayor of MBKS to beautify banks of Sg. Maong in the Batu Lintang State Constituency. Such an idea is very much welcomed, but, after the mayor's defeat, we are not sure whether the present BN government would carry out with the project. What I am saying here is that, we don't BN government to forget the promises made by their leaders and abandon us once defeated. Even if it was not a promise, as elected representative of the people of Batu Lintang, I wish the State BN government could fulfil the concept brought by the then mayor as it was a noble thing to do for the good of the people of the constituency.

A question touching on local government was also put by me to the State BN government. What we want is tranparency and also to know the ability of the local authorities to collect revenues so that these local authorities could run well. We also want to know how much revenue these local authorities could collect. We do not, of course, want to see local councillors who are dead wood, just sitting in council meetings to hear briefings from officers of their local authorities. Since in the present system do not afford the opposition to sit in council meetings, there is no way to know how these local authorities were run. So, the only way is to ask through the Dewan. It is lucky this time we have opposition members in the Dewan to inquire matters concerning local authorities, otherwise, the matter could easily be swept under the carpet. Due to transparency problem and abuses of power in public authorities, the BN governments should acced to the request of the people and call for local authority elections.

In this coming Dewan sitting I would also like the State BN government to anwer my queries on oil and gas royalties. The people of Sarawak should know as these are among our State's most important property. We hope the Federal Government understand that our state's oil and gas money had been used to help West Malaysia to develop fast. It is with this hope that if we keep the issue alive, we hope one day the Federal Government would sympathise us and give back our oil and gas rights so that Sarawak can use the revenue derived from these resources to better develop the state.

Besides oil and gas, the Federal Government also took much revenue out from the state through federal departments. It is time now for us also to know how much revenue the federal government got each year from the federal departments from our state. The revenue collected by these federal government should be "filtered" or part of it retained by the state before being sent to the Federal Treasury.

For information, please see questions to the Dewan as below:


1. Bertanya kepada Timbalan Ketua Menteri I Sarawak.

Question: (Oral Answer)

a. How many suspects were arrested or detained by the police under each section of 23, 105 and 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code in Kuching, Sri Aman, Kota Samarahan, Sibu, Bintulu, Kapit, Miri and Limbang for each of the years from 2001 until April, 2008 and how many were actually charged in court after arrest or expiry of remand under the respective section of the Criminal Procedure Code?

b. May it be disclosed the number of juveniles, racial and gender breakdown of all those arrested under sections 23, 105 and 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code in the aforesaid towns or cities during the period mentioned?

c. While under detention in police cells, how many were said sick or being assaulted or battered during the aforesaid period and how many were actually sent to hospitals for medical treatments or observations, if any, and what were the results of the medical examinations and action taken by the police on each of these cases of assault or battery?

d. For each of the years from 2001 to April, 2008, how many Sarawakians were placed in detention under the (i) Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance 1969 (ii) Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 1970 (iii) Restricted Residence Ordinance 1933 (iv) Dangerous Drugs (Forfeiture of Property) Act 1988?


2. Bertanya kepada YB Menteri Alam Sekitar dan Kesihatan:

Question:(Oral Answers)

To the proposal made by the then Mayor of Majlis Bandaran Kuching Selatan (MBKS) during the recent state election campaign 2006, to beautify the river of Sg. Maong in the Batu Lintang Constituency under the concept of “For A Better Homeland” with gardens, planted trees, footpaths, etc., when will the project be started and completed and what will be the cost of the project?


3. Bertanya kepada YB Menteri Alam Sekitar dan Kesihatan:

Question: (Oral Answers)

a. To state the amount of revenue collected from outdoor advertisements by Dewan Bandaraya Kuching Utara (DBKU), Majlis Bandaraya Kuching Selatan (MBKS) and Majlis Perbandaran Padawan (MPP) for each of the years from 2001-2007?

b. How much revenue including traffic fines left outstanding and still not collected by DBKU, MBKS and MPP and what actions had been taken by these authorities to recover these unpaid revenues and how successful were the recovery actions by these authorities?

c. To those revenues with no possibility of recovery including traffic fines, what had DBKU, MBKS and MPP done with them?


4. Bertanya kepada YAB Ketua Menteri Sarawak:

Question (Oral Answer)

a. What is the amount of oil and gas royalties collected by the State from each of the years from 1980 until 2007 and to which fund or how were these royalties channeled to the State by the Federal Government?

b. How the fund from these oil and gas royalties were used or managed in the development of the State under the administration of our present YAB Chief Minister?

c. Whether there had been negotiations by the state since 2006 with the federal government to have the royalties of gas and oil be increased from the present 5% and if there were negotiations, what were the progress of these negotiations and who were involved in the negotiations and when?

d. What is the compensatory amount owed by Federal Government to our State Government since 2000 after adoption of the Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) by the Federal Government which abolished the Excise and Import Duty on petroleum products?

e. Since the Excise and Import Duty on petroleum products had been abolished upon the adoption of AFTA and replaced by Sales Tax since 2000, what is the amount of the shortfall in revenue, if any, from petroleum products, if the Excise and Import Duty was to be maintained?


5. Bertanya kepada YB Menteri Kewangan:

Question(Oral Answer)

a. How much money was collected from public authorities and donations from members of the public to families of the victims of the bus tragedy many years ago with students in it that plunged, killing them in Bau Lake?

b. Name the recipients of this money and how much each got?


6. Bertanya kepada YB Menteri Kewangan:

Question (Oral Question)

What is the amount of revenue collected in the State each year for years from 2000 - 2007 as federal revenue from the following federal departments:-

i. Police Department;
ii. Customs & Excise Department;
iii. Inland Revenue Department;
iv. Immigration Department;
v. Road Transport Department; and,
vi. Judicial Department.

7. Bertanya kepada YB Menteri Perancangan dan Pengurusan Sumber:

Question (Oral Answer)

a. Why the Forest Department recently seems ineffective in combating illegal loggings in the state and that the police were called in or had to assist in combating these activities?

b. What is the estimate cost of loss in revenue due to illegal logging of timber since 2000 to April, 2008?



8. Bertanya kepada YAB Ketua Menteri:

Question (Oral Answer)

In what way the impending reshuffled State Cabinet will be able to help accelerate the economic growth and enhance people’s welfare in both urban and rural areas, especially, the poor?

9. Bertanyak kepada YB Menteri Pembangunan Infrastruktur.

Question (Oral Question).

a. Has CMS Roads Sdn. Bhd. who was awarded in 2003 a
15-year contract in maintenance of roads in the State prepared and submitted to the JKR the Network Maintenance Strategy and Quantity Assurance System, and if not, why and what action had the relevant authorities so far taken to make sure the company has to come out with the requirement?

b. Detail out the auditing system or procedure undertaken by Public Works Department (JKR) to ensure that CMS Roads Sdn. Bhd., had carried out proper maintenance of roads in the State in accordance with job specifications and quality maintenance assurance.

c. What are the flaws, if any, detected by JKR in their supervision and auditing of road maintenance works undertaken in the state by CMS Roads Sdn. Bhd and what are the remedial action taken in respect of these flaws?

10. Bertanya kepada Menteri Pemodenan Pertanian:

Question (Oral Answers)

a. Detail out the progress of the implementation of the state agricultural policy to make Sarawak a sustaining food producer in Malaysia?

b. What had the government done so far to make sure that Sarawak will be among the largest producer of rice and grains in the next five years?




Dated this 15th day of April, 2008



VOON LEE SHAN
ADUN Batu Lintang – N. 11

Visiting Perak & Selangor (9th April-11th April 2008)

Our state DAP delegation of 43 visited Perak on the 10th of April. We arrived at Syuen Hotel in Ipoh for a lunch treated by the Perak State government. Our DAP State leaders discussed a number of issues with the Perak State government. After the lunch, Perak State Exco member, YB Ngeh brought us to the State Government Building. Among the issues discussed were Perak's land policy, education and local government elections.

MB of Perak, YB Mohd Nizar hosted our DAP delegation to a lunch at Syuen Hotel.

Perak DAP Chairman, YB Ngeh and I.



DAP members and I taking a photo at the lobby of Syuen Hotel.




Our state DAP delegation posing for a photo.
We need some protocol lessons. YB Chiew, YB Violet and State Committee member, Sdr. Pau Teck couldn't find a place infront for the photograph! All seems fighting for a better view of the camera!





Visiting Selangor

The next day, on 11th April, we make our way to Selangor. We went to Selangor State Building, and were briefed by State Exco Members, YB Ronnie Liu, YB Teresa Kok, YB Ean Yong Hian Wah and YB Dr Halimah. After the discussion, our delegation headed to Klang for 'bak kut teh' and 'durian'. A much appreciation to DAP Assemblyman for Teluk Datuk, YB Philip Tan who brought us to a tour around Klang Valley and Port Klang Free Zone. Of course, we also visited the famous 'Istana Zakaria'.

My comrades and I in the briefing room at Selangor State Building.

A picture with DAP Selangor State Exco, YB Ronnie Liu!

YB Wong presented Selangor Exco Member YB Teresa Kok the New Land Policy of Sarawak which was introduced by our minister, Awang Tengah.

DAP Sarawak delegation posing for a photo with MB of Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid, State Exco Members YB Ronnie Liu, YB Teresa Kok and YB Dr Halimah.
DAP are now in the government and its' time that we learn protocol to polish our image. Selangor Exco member,YB Dr. Halimah, (with tudong) very humble, had to be satisfied standing at the back to give DAP members getting better picture of themselves! We should learn something from her humility!

DAP members, I and Tan Sri Khalid.


My comrades and I at the Port Klang Free Zone(PKFZ). Much money spent for the development of this PKFZ but still very little business activity! An expensive affair!
It was said a YB from Sarawak made a lot of money in connection this place.

A picture of Istana Zakaria taken from our bus.
Such a big, splendid palace of a former gate keeper!

42nd Party Anniversary 民主行动党42周年党庆

民主行动党慰劳晚宴 27/03/2008

Nothing much to speak and better to reserve for election ceramah!

Sdr. Chong Siew Chiang stressing a point about PKR, Dominique & Co.

Everybody happy and we forgot our opponents for awhile.