Dewan Diary - Day 8

By Y.B. Wong Ho Leng, ADUN for Bukit Assek

This is the Final day’s sitting this Session. Should anyone ask me how I felt now that the session was over, I would say that I felt sad that the sitting had not been longer by at least 2 more days.

Should there be anyone asking me what surprised me most from this sitting, I would say that I was pleasantly surprised that even the BN Ministers and backbenchers have been reading my writing/Blog.

The DAP had never been worried by the constant bashing by the BN. If they thought that they had done a wonderful job wounding us, I dare say that that would be far from right. Do what they have to do but we do ours. We brought into the Dewan issues. We looked to check the administration. We disdained the Dewan being reduced to a mere rubber stamp for the administration.

We boycotted Jabu’s morning session when he would present his speech relating to his Ministry of Rural Development. We had voted him the “Most Disrespectful Minister”. This was because he was disrespectful to the Opposition and the Standing Orders yesterday. When we tried to interject yesterday, he would pretend not seeing us and would read like he was driving in a Formula 1 circuit. Even when the Speaker asked whether he would give way for clarification he would pretend not hearing anything. Our decision was to boycott the 1st hour but we then extended it despite the fact that Voon was already in the Dewan at 10 a.m. and had interjected during Jabu’s speech. Because Voon’s handphone was already out of coverage in the Dewan, we had an awkward situation. We sent an SMS to Voon. When he received it, he retreated from the Dewan.

We thought we would be in time for George Chan’s winding up speech when we arrived at the DUN Complex at 11 a.m. But we heard the voice of Jabu and the altercation inside the Dewan. Dominique/PKR had a monopoly to himself arguing with Jabu, and the argument was incessant. In his Budget debate, Dominique had asked Jabu to supply answer to his question on CMS, otherwise he would continue his mis-pronunciation of Jabu’s constituency (Layar) and would continue to call Jabu a liar. Jabu and Dominique had never been in good terms since Day 1. Jabu had alleged that PKR and DAP had oppressed the rural people in their opportunity to see more development. That was a stale allegation, as Jabu said the same thing last year, and I had stated DAP’s answer to the issue. Why should that issue be allowed to be brought up this time, I really do not know. I am not sure whether Dominique had invoked the Standing Orders when Jabu started his charade on it.

In any event, we heard funny noises coming from the public announcing system, ranging from the crows of a cockrel to the howling of dogs. That shows that the BN would muster all tricks to disturb the Opposition, despite their insisting that all Members must observe the decorum.

Outside at the Corridor, we heard Dominique fending the BN, ONE against the rest of the members less DAP. Of course, not all BN members were in the Dewan. Many of them were fed up by the altercations and were standing outside, some even teasing us for not going in to help!

I believe that the BN “altercators” were merely looking to disturbing Dominique. The Speaker did his all, but let the proceedings continued. I read this tactics as letting the BN predators having their way. Phrases such as “you are lonesome”, “pull his tongue”, “your Party main belakang” etc etc all appeared. Dominique must have felt like a hero fending against the BN. But shall we go in before Jabu had finally wound up? We had a quick meeting. We decided that we would continue boycott Jabu until he had finished in this session. There was no point watching him read. We could read faster at home. As it was past noon, we decided to join the Dewan after lunch. We continued let Dominique have the privilege of “predating” the BN folks.

George Chan had started when 6 of us marched in. He deliberated on matters connected to his Ministry of Industrial Development and then answered certain issues raised in the debate. A tea break later, George Chan was on his Ministry of Agriculture. I won’t know whether George Chan would have been more successful than me as a farmer, but I believe we both have the same interest in the farmland. He explained on the newest crop clones and told the House the most recent developments to preserve fruits like dabai and dragon fruits. But we never knew what these inventions were but I suspect that it has to do with vacuum packaging. My knowledge on science is so scanty that this would be a mere guess.

Then George Chan talked on something which I anticipated he would – politics. The other day Soon Koh told the newspapers that there was no Team A and Team B in the SUPP. Soon Koh also said the relationship between him and George Chan is extremely cordial and they spent their time everyday discussing national political issues. Wow! So, I had wanted to see what George Chan had to offer. It was tremendously enlightening.

“Now I am going to talk something on politics”, George Chan said with a smile and gestured to pull his sleeve up a little, with Chong jesting that he should put his boxing gloves on. He expressed the hope that the opposition would not interject.

Why should he be so scared? You wanted to box us and yet asked us not the hit back! The Speaker came to assist. He told the Dewan that if the Minister refused to give way, and if he the Speaker gave 3 warnings, then the member interjecting would be sent out of the Dewan.

The movie had hardly begun when Voon tried his luck. George Chan motioned his hands all over his table and said he would not give way to clarification. The Speaker gave the 1st warning. Voon sat down, but only to stand again. He was given the 2nd warning. Voon sat and stood again. The Speaker was about to give a 3rd warning, but Voon quickly took his seat.

Did the Speaker mean business? I thought this could not be right. How could he expect the Minister to “hantam” us and we could take these punches lying down?

George Chan was upset that I had called his party one of Sarawak’s Useless Political Parties. I stood to retort but was disallowed. Lee Kim Shin thought it a good moment to “minta” from his Party President a floor to stand on. As he started talking, Chong fired back with venom. I wanted to shoot too, but rightly, the Speaker thought it a better idea to order George Chan to continue his speech. Lee Kim Shin and Chong sat, and I complied too. The Speaker must have enough altercations in the morning.

George Chan was surely very proud that his Party did so much for Chinese schools and challenged the DAP to show what we had done. He would not let me a chance to reply until I asked him whether he was “gentleman” enough to give. “We are the Opposition. You are the Government. You collect the people’s tax …”. As he saw me opening up, he quickly took back his floor.

Was George Chan upset by what I said about his Party’s internal bickering? He said that any political party has hiccups, and the SUPP had hiccups after it suffered some casualties in last year’s election, but he thought he had found a syringe to hurt me. He quoted a sentence from my Blog saying that even in DAP there were unhappiness, like I was displeased that Voon was absent from our pre-council conference last Sunday. I stood to ask for a moment to clarify. With the Speaker asking whether he was prepared to give way, I asked whether he was gentleman enough to give. He let me thank him for promoting my Blog and explain that I was indeed displeased by Voon’s absence but then Voon’s reason was that he had to attend another dinner function and which explanation was acceptable to me.

We were surprised that George Chan’s attack on DAP was over as quickly as it was brought up. With Jabu congratulating his colleague right after the speech was over, George Chan must be wondering whether I would tell him how I had felt? Since he is reading my Blog and this Diary, I would convey my thanks to George Chan for recognizing DAP as having an important place in his heart, so much so that he had to dedicate time and energy to answer us. But, honestly, his answer had given away what Soon Koh had tried to hide. Is the Party split a hiccup? Is the Party President and his Assistant Secretary in cordial terms? Did they spend day and night discussing national political issues? I think the answer would better be left to them and I won’t waste any more space here.

The Big Shot anchored the show, as always. He was the Star. To start with, all the BN ADUNs and the 2 Independent/BN Prone ADUNs all turned up for the “auspicious” occasion. Then, since the CM is afraid of the chill in the Dewan, the portals of the Dewan were opened for a while to let out some cold air.

The temperature (as measured by the thermometer) in the Dewan steadily climbed when CM commenced his speech. It was a straight forward one. He asked Sarawakians to be brave to face the world trend, to create economic opportunities, venture into new horizon and be ready to change with the tentacles of globalization waving. The state had to develop human resources and diversify the economic base.

The CM then commended Chin Sing, equating him to the examples of opposition members like Tan Chee Koon, Lee Lam Thye and Wong Sing Nang.

As I made my eye contact with Chin Sing, my message was delivered - “Divide and Rule”. Wow! Chin Sing was in Sing Nang’s class, and with Sing Nang’s name not wholly accepted by many people in Sarawak, Chin Sing must have felt small and embarrassed indeed.

The CM admonished Sarawakians to treasure peace and harmony in order to attract long terms investments.

His speech came to an abrupt end after 30 minutes. It could be the shortest winding up speech that the CM had given these years. But we were not complaining that it was already 7:30 p.m.

The Budget had to be passed, despite our raising so many issues in our speeches. Without the Supply, the state would not be able to function next year.

Dublin Unting gave the adjournment speech. It lasted less than 8 minutes, a perfect time.

As the Speaker read his 3 panduns, our hearts had walked to Rock Road Restaurant. At 7:50 p.m., we broke off. We bade farewell to those good foes and bad foes as they streamed past us. We harboured no ill feelings toward them. We had done our best, and so had they, I assumed. Only that out political platforms differed. We will not meet till next May, friends and foes, when we shall do our best all over again.

Rock Road Restaurant has been our eating place at the end of every DUN session. For all the efforts of my charges, they deserved to be treated. It was there that we would assess our performance. We would do some brain storming as to what could have been improved. We would chart our next course of actions now that we had those answers in our hands. I would also give general direction as to what had to be looked into in order to attain greater heights for ourselves and the Party.

Every minute of our being together had been important, and I would be the first to say I appreciated it all. Our togetherness not only bonded comradeship but also providing the opportunity to seeing the destiny of the Party and the State together.