COMMENT There is a proverbial Malay saying, ‘Katak di bawah tempurung’ (A frog is contented living under the coconut shell).

Sarawak, as one of the two states which proudly form East Malaysia, should not exist as though it is not part of Malaysia.

Unless he is bent towards secession, I find it hard to believe that Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem should ban members of the opposition from peninsular Malaysia from entering Sarawak.

East and West Malaysia cannot operate as two separate entities, where East Malaysians are allowed entry without a question and allowed to find jobs in the peninsula, but West Malaysians are barred from entering Sarawak, especially during the election campaign.

Today it’s you, tomorrow it’s me

What is worse is that the immigration rule is carried out arbitrarily without prior warning. It is unfair to those who are being barred from entering.

For example, Penang DAP chairperson Chow Kon Yeow and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng were allowed into Sarawak recently, but not Hannah Yeoh, who was invited by a local church in Sibu.

As the Selangor state speaker, it was truly an insult to Yeoh, who was turned down at the immigration checkpoin.

In a week’s time, should Lim or Chow return, they may also not be allowed entry into Sarawak. This raises a lot of questions about the legitimacy of the ban, and inevitably projects Adenan as a leader lacking in confidence; therefore, he has to abuse the power given to him to reject anyone from entering Sarawak without a word of explanation.

Behind all the show of confidence, and the supposedly confidence that we see in Adenan, there is this biggest fear that he has of losing the state election if the game is played fairly.

It raises the question of whether Adenan is privy to some information on the ground that we are not aware of. Is it about another political tsunami that perhaps he believes will hit the state of Sarawak? Or else, why is he unable to accept that opposition leaders from West Malaysia have the right to enter the state especially during the coming state elections?

At least be a gentleman

What baffles the mind the most is that the list is never even published to warn those who are banned from the land of the hornbills. Imagine Adenan flying to the KLIA2, and he is denied entry because Selangor bans him. He could be on holiday here in Selangor.

This is unfair especially to those who are banned from entering Sarawak. Time and money is wasted on the trip, and no government can shield itself from the brickbats, especially when it continues to act irresponsibly towards the citizen of its own country.

The ban has turned Adenan to appear more like a ‘dictator’ than the fair-minded Adenan that he seeks to project. It clearly shows that the Sarawak caretaker government, for fear of losing the coming election, will not hesitate to use all the resources within its power to further control the people of Sarawak in much the same way that former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had done.

In the past, during Taib Mahmud’s era, the natives were losing their natives’ customary rights to the land of their birth. As one native from Murum, Kenneth Adan Silek, said, “In the past, we had houses and land, but now, we are given a room in the longhouse and a plot of land about three acres, but with a leasehold of only 60 years.”

The entire game played by Adenan’s government has started to upset the people of Sarawak with the way that Adenan runs the state. Whatever good he had done in the past is now becoming meaningless as the people have started seeing through the hypocrisy.

Yeoh’s example

In fact, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang in his blog has urged Adenan to do all he can to ensure that “the 11th Sarawak state general elections be a clean, free, fair and democratic one.”

From the number of people who were blocked from entering Sarawak, it is clear that Adenan is no different from his predecessor.

Selangor speaker Yeoh’s denial of entry is a good example. Yeoh has raised funds to provide basic infrastructure for the poor in Sarawak, something which the Sarawak state government has failed to do all these years.

For that, she asked, “How can that be a threat? Am I a threat to the people of Sarawak or am I a threat to the unrighteous authorities in Sarawak?” Coming from a young lady such as Yeoh, this simply tells you why Adenan is so afraid of even Yeoh.

Till now, the Barisan Nasional caretaker government under Adenan has not issued an apology to Yeoh yet but we have heard Yeoh’s side of the story and encouraging our Sarawakian brothers and sisters to cast their votes wisely.

Yeoh has correctly pointed out that the ban was carried out without even a written explanation regarding the deportation.

Perhaps, this is not Adenan’s fault; it is always the immigration officer’s fault. We all know the same script often used by morally bankrupt politicians. At this juncture, I am inclined to believe that Adenan, too, has joined the basket of rotten apples.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.