HO LENG SAID VOON SELDOM SPOKE IN THE DEWAN?
For the past weeks, I was being condemned by my own leaders for replying against the unfounded allegations by a comrade in his facebook. We all know that facebook could be accessible to the whole world. I am entitled to defend myself against attack as it affected my image, but, in the past weeks I was too patient and just kept quiet. Now, the article in the facebook and my reply thereto had been deleted. With that, it is much easier to condemn me and sad to say my Chairman Wong Ho Leng joined the fray to throw dirt at me and public are not happy. Again, I have to clean myself and to clear my name in public.

Members of the public did not condemn me, but, showed a lot of sympathy towards me of what happened to me. Here, I convey my sincere thanks to them for their sympathy and concern for what had happened in the past weeks. I could not have the leisure to spend time to rebut all allegations levelled against me because my time are precious and I preferred my time be spent for useful things and be used to attend problems faced by the people my Batu Lintang constituency, rather than to respond to what Wong Ho Leng had said unnecessarily. But, as a human being I have my limit and I just could not keep quiet at all times.

I respect Wong Ho Leng, but, I just pray that God will guide him as our supreme leader in the Party to solve problems in the party and not to aggravate it or prolong the problem to aggravate further. A child could be very disobedient, but, this does not mean that the child is stupid and we must understand that when a child becomes rebellious, the child would create a lot of problem in the family and it is up to the parents how to take care of the child and show love to child. We all know when a child goes wrong the parents should be held responsible. The child lacks experience in life and needs much guidance from his parents to tackle problems of the outside world.

This was what actually had happened in Perak government under PR. The Perak problem was like a disobedient child who was full of anger. There was fire in his heart, but, leaders did not cool him down. If there is fire, we need water to dose it out. Instead, leaders whom I say are generals, poured petrol to it and the fire burnt the whole house! What I say, the fire was there, but, why poured petrol to the fire? Control the fire from spreading by calling the fire brigades and dose the fire by water! This was what should be done.

The Perak government collapsed and the generals put the blame on the solders! No, the blame should be on the generals, not on the soldiers, because the generals had no ability or management skill to take care and control of their soldiers. Soldiers normally follow orders and are there to protect their generals if the generals know how to command and control them. Therefore, in wars, normally soldiers died and not the generals! This is why there was a saying that “There are bad generals but no bad soldiers!” This is because the generals are selfish people and they seldom die in wars and instead they let the soldiers die by having them to fight at the front and when attacked, the generals will get the soldiers to protect them!

Yes, in politics I am a solider and was sent by the commanders to the front to fight the war. I still remember in 2001 state election, I was ordered to prepare to fight BN in Batu Lintang and I worked very hard for about two years. The comrades who followed me were stung by the bees, bitten by the dogs and some of them even fell into the drains when chased by the people who scolded us. But about three weeks before the nomination day, I was ordered by party commanders to fight BN in Pending in a three cornered fight involving Dominique Ng. Both Dominique Ng and I were killed in that battle field and the incumbent won handsomely! Why got Dominique and I killed each other when we should be in the same camp?

The commanders did this because I supposed they wanted KeAdilan instead to DAP to fight the incumbent. I could not see the true reason behind this until now. I regret Cheng Hui Hong from KeAdilan could not plug the fruits I and my few comrades had planted there for him. DAP was lucky to have a straight fight in Padungan at that time. Until today I could not understand why Dominique Ng from KeAdilan was ordered by his commanders to fight against me and against the incumbent in Pending in 2001 although his political work all the years was in Padungan area.

In that 2001 state election, I was nearly been assaulted and battered in CHMS No.3 when during a public meeting addressed by the incumbent, I challenged the incumbent to admit that there was a press statement in the 1980s that the land in the stutong resettlement scheme was supposed to be given to the occupants there free and without premiums when premiums were then imposed after the occupants had comfortably settled down.

Now, I come to Wong Ho Leng, our supreme commander in DAP Sarawak. In the press dated 23. 1. 2010 Wong Ho Leng said my voice was seldom heard in the Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN). As his soldier, I could not understand the reason why Wong Ho Leng as our supreme commander had to say this. He was throwing dirt at me in public and I have to clean myself and I should not allow dirt to stick on me all the time. We need to understand that time to speak in the Dewan has always been curtailed by all possible tricks from the BN backbenchers. Worst still, too much time was spent in unnecessary arguments, like the shouting of monkeys, kangaroos and kurang ajar just to attract the people in the public gallery and the press. I was always very amused when YBs shouting and pointing fingers at each other were seen just laughing at each other or their opponents when they were seen shouting at each other in the Dewan. To those who did not observe their action, but, followed the press could not see what actually happened in the Dewan sitting and thought that these YBs were heroes. Unwittingly, we in the opposition also fell into the trap of the BN backbenchers led by YB Abdul Karim from Asajaya and when time came to speak and debate on the real issues, we found that there was not enough time to speak. We made ourselves fools and wasted the precious time allocated to us. We only had about 8 to 10 days meeting each time where not less than 50 YBs wanted to speak. Many times, YBs were only allocated 15-20 minutes by the speaker. At times, I could find myself lucky to be able to speak longer. There were times that the speaker allowed me to speak for about an hour.

To the public, I have to say that I had always been very careful of my words so that I would not be chased out of the Dewan unnecessarily and had to manage my time well. I did not want to get involved in all the unnecessary arguments with BN backbenchers, but, when I need to shout, I had to shout aloud and was serious at it, even if be commanded to leave by the speaker. I have to tell the people that given the restricted time allocated to us in the Dewan, we must as elected representative representing the voice of the people find means to get ourselves heard. The contents and quality of our speeches are more important than the unnecessary shouting that created headlines in the press. I also have to tell the people that many gave lengthy speeches, but, lacked ideas and quality in the contents of their speeches. When ideas are lacking from the floor how are we able to assist the ministers to run the state more effectively for the benefit of the state and everybody?

Wong Ho Leng as our commander must understand that he should be the first one to stand up when Chong Chieng Jen in the May 2009 sitting was attacked and booed in the Dewan by BN backbenchers and by the ministers when Chong Chieng Jen was about to speak on the land matters. There was a walk out by BN backbenchers and by the ministers led by DCM George Chan, thus, leaving the Dewan no quorum to hear the debate made by Chong Chieng Jen. I could not understand until today why our supreme commander did not or slow react on that occasion well. As a solider it was impolite for me to ask my commander. He was not aggressive enough when the opportunity was there for him to do so.

I had to stand up and challenge DCM George Chan to offer an apology to the speaker, the Dewan and the people of Sarawak for leading the BN backbenchers out of the Dewan during the sitting of the Dewan when our commander did not respond immediately. If I could remember two days had lapsed, yet, our commander did not do anything to aggressively condemned DCM Dr. George Chan. I regret that my commander’s reaction was not something that could be expected from him as he should have aggressively attacked DCM George Chan. When I stood up it resulted in very heated argument and I was chased out of the Dewan. I addressed the minister politely, but, when he ignored me, I had to shout and was very serious about it because land matters involved the whole people of Sarawak, be he a malay, a Chinese or a dayak and I felt that DCM should be held responsible for his action.

I have to tell the people that after I had been chased out, I did not want to go back and had to wait for DCM to come out of the Dewan and confronted him again. I had to wait for DCM George Chan because land matter was an important issue and in each sitting where BN backbenchers could play their tricks, I was aware that time was not with us to tackle the problem for the benefit of the people of Sarawak and it could be seen that I had been fighting the unjust policy on land matters since I joined DAP. The incident in CHMS No. 3 was scary but I had to carry on.

My heart was in pain when I could not see my commander at my side when I challenged DCM George of his action. DCM George Chan and many YBs stared ferociously like tigers waiting to eat me. They were also showing their hands and pointing their fingers at me. I just wanted to know why DCM George Chan led a stage out and why he was not serious about the matter. Being a leader of the people there was no reason why DCM George Chan should not be aware of the importance of the matter. I was a lone ranger facing the odds. The ministers and other BN YBs were all there and they surrounded me. I could have been assaulted by people around. I was not intimidated by their acts and presence, but, until to day I could not understand why my commander did not save me from the assault by Dr. George Chan at the corridors of the Dewan. I am very sad, but, this will not leave me demoralized to help and work harder for the people of Sarawak.

At the same time, the press statement of Wong Ho Leng published on 23. 1. 2010 has implied that the people in Batu Lintang was wrong to vote for DAP in which I am the elected representative. They said it was an insult to their intelligence. With that press statement, I was confronted by many people from Batu Lintang about the wisdom of my commander in what the commander said in the press statement. The people in Batu Lintang refused to listen to my explanation and had demanded an apology from my commander.