LETTER | Just after GE14, MTUC Sarawak wrote why Pakatan Harapan must not accept Sarawak BN.

This was after reports indicating that Sarawak BN was reviewing its position with the BN and considering joining Harapan as a coalition partner. It was also reported that Sarawak Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud has met with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. We were disturbed as the governor has to be apolitical and must not be involved in politics.

We need BN to play their very crucial role as an effective opposition to provide checks and balances on the new government. No government will be perfect and a strong effective opposition is very much needed. History has shown that a coalition of many parties will eventually seek to enrich all partners at the expenses of the country. All they did was to create the highest number of ministers in the world.

The greatest gift of the election result is not that Harapan won, it is the people who have won and any party that failed in its duties and responsibilities to the country will be removed in the next election.

So to the BN, they are not losers in the election – they are winners, having inherited the sacred duty of being an effective opposition. To Harapan, fulfil your promise of clean government, we will retain you; get into bed with cohorts, you will feel the wrath of the newly empowered people.

State BN leaders subsequently denied that they wanted to join Harapan and Mahathir also went on to say that Harapan will not accept them.

Now it has been confirmed that all Sarawak BN parties PBB, SUPP, PRS and SPDP have jumped ship to form Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS). They also pledged cooperation to Harapan. This abandoning of its sacred duty to be an effective opposition is not surprising as all their leaders are so used to enjoying the trappings and patronage of power.

MTUC is very disappointed by the decision as it would reduce the effectiveness of the opposition and may bring back the much feared “dictatorship”.

This is what Abang Johari Openg said when asked if former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and the 1MDB scandals were the main reasons for them to leave BN: “No. We have considered all aspects after the 14th general election while at the same time we are focusing on Sarawak’s interests and rights.”

This showed that GPS doesn’t give two hoots about corruption and will focus on Sarawak interests even if corruption is involved. That is why, despite both the federal and state governments being under BN, the state government allowed such blatant discrimination and exploitation for so long.

So clearly the four parties jumping ship is not in the national interest. It is not even in the Sarawak’s interest, despite these parties trumpeting their claim to regain state rights. These are the very same cohorts that meekly surrendered these rights the past 55 years.

MTUC has long been very sceptical of this Sarawak for Sarawakians movement. We believe it is a ruse to grab more wealth for the rich and connected Sarawakians and businesses.

They harp so much on the oil and gas rights and they wanted to protect the interests of 13 senior executives laid off by Petronas while turning a blind eye to the tens of thousands of foreign workers depriving ordinary Sarawakians of a decent job with decent wages, not to mention the illegal ones.

So, why didn’t we freeze issuance of permits to these foreign workers? They turned a blind eye when Petronas abolished the allowance paid to lower-ranked Sarawakian staff.

The state government does not even have a Human Resources Ministry/Unit to formulate human resources policy for the private sector. Over the years, they, and the BN federal minister of human resources, who is from Sarawak, did nothing when a state government majority-owned company retrenched senior employees in 2011, because, there was a need “to get rid of bad employees” (who were all Sarawakians).

The majority of workers in the oil palm industry which are mostly owned by timber companies were paid only minimum wages. At least 80 percent of the workforce in the oil palm and timber industries are foreigners.

The Sarawak government does not pay the cost of living allowance to civil servants in the state despite the federal government paying it in Kuala Lumpur/Putrajaya and state governments in Peninsular Malaysia doing so.

These are exactly why MTUC have constantly cautioned those who have been pushing for autonomy for Sarawak. Sarawakians do have legitimate rights to want full control over our oil money. It’s not fair the peninsula has so many highways while we have none.

We empathise with some of these gripes and I agree Putrajaya has a lot to answer for. But is it just the fault of Putrajaya? Is it also safe to say that our state BN leaders in the past have failed to do their job?

Why did we build the coastal road with so many mega bridges to open up more land for oil palm and ignore the Pan-Borneo Highway? Why prioritise the Pan Borneo section at Sematan/Telok Melano? Do we need to open up more and more forests in Tanjong Dato?

The state BN hit a jackpot riding on the autonomy tide during the last state elections. By leaving BN now, they want more of the same. They are glossing over the structural and governance issues plaguing our state for so many decades. All Sarawakians must realise that if these real issues are not tackled, any extra revenue will end up in a handful of connected people.

Greater autonomy must mean greater responsibility and accountability. The track record of the state government in matters where we already have full autonomy – land, labour and immigration – does not give any confidence.

We have so many land-grab issues, not just NCR land for oil palm, but beachfront land and ex-government quarters demolished for condominiums and commercial shophouses?

On labour, the Sarawak BN stopped the Federal Employment Act. As a result, it was only after almost 50 years that the hopelessly outdated Sarawak Labour Ordinance was amended to provide basic rights for workers only in 2008. The minimum wage is lower in Sarawak simply because employers in the state have been paying much lower wages for the past five decades. Harapan has promised to have a uniform minimum wage rate for the whole country, while the Sarawak government wants to widen the current gap.

Our state-controlled immigration is only effective in picking up and deporting Harapan MPs and menteris besar after five hours but seems to let in tens of thousands of illegal workers, hawkers and traders, including North Koreans.

We want a bigger share of the oil and gas revenue yet does nothing about the sharing of the timber wealth which is controlled by the Big Six timber companies. These timber companies remain vehemently opposed to minimum wage. Wages in the oil palm and timber are among the lowest while oil and gas are the highest. Areas like Kapit and the interior, where billions of timber are extracted over the years, remain the poorest and the most under-developed regions of Sarawak.

For those who say that our oil money must be for Sarawakians, then folks in Baleh, Bakun, Murum and Baram will have every legitimate right to say that their land is for themselves and not for mega dams to generate electricity for SCORE, export to Indonesia and for city folks to drive around in “pollution-free” electric cars. Since oil and gas are offshore of Bintulu and Miri, shouldn’t the Pan Borneo Highway be from Bintulu to Miri only?

Therefore the priority is to improve integrity, reduce corruption and to ensure that wealth is equitably shared with the ordinary people of Sarawak. The four parties can do that as part of the opposition if they are really sincere.

ANDREW LO is the secretary of the MTUC, Sarawak division.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.