Nothing interest Malaysians more now than reading of a bumbling minister or deputy minister and their callous statements, lame excuses and subsequent U-turns.
When a fishmonger or a farmer or a street cleaner or your routine morning coffee mate says something out of line, he could be excused because he is answerable to nobody but himself.
If he must answer for his language, it is between him and the person his language is directed against. That’s not of public interest.
But if an elected rep or a deputy minister or a minister speaks out of line, he is answerable to not just himself and the object of his speech but also to the public he represents. In this instance, public interest is at stake.
Therefore, politicians holding public office should mind their language and not say anything as if being minister or deputy minister gives them the right to present their opinions without care for facts, figures and public sensitivities.
In the not-too-distant past, you could wriggle your way out of a situation just by saying you had been misquoted or your statement taken out of context, which really means you are blaming the media for misrepresenting you.
Today, that trick is not likely to work anymore simply because you are talking to an audience that comes not only to listen but also to collect and share stuff of interest in cyberspace. You blunder, the whole world will know.
The internet may not be as fast in Sarawak as in Malaya; or penetration may not be as wide, but still people are generally well-informed, an aspect pretty much underrated by Malaysians, particularly politicians from across the South China Sea.
For those in the know, the urge to say something that has the potential to touch on sensitivities does not arise, the problem is with those who think they know but are in fact callously ignorant.
You could be a medical doctor, a PhD holder, an ustaz, a lawyer, a menteri besar, a minister or deputy minister but if you were born and raised across the South China Sea the likelihood is you would not know Sarawak and Sarawakians as much as you thought you did.
This is the reason why we had Malayans who came to Sarawak telling us who we should vote for; and when we didn’t vote the people they wanted us to vote they said we were still living on trees and wearing loincloths.
But we Sarawakians didn’t call them nasty names or describe them in the way they were saying we were still swinging from trees to trees.
On the contrary, we respect their choice in GE14.
Yes, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak did what no prime ministers before him did for Sarawak – Pan Borneo Highway, money to churches and temples, the return of Bakun Dam, the freedom to speak about devolution of power and our rights as enshrined in MA63, and many more.
Quite naturally Sarawakians have a certain liking for the man.
But in GE14, Malayans wanted Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamd and Pakatan Harapan, and as much as we like Najib, we respect their choice.
So today, Dr Mahathir is our prime minister and PH is the federal government, despite cancelled projects and weaker representation in the central government, Sarawakians have no problem with him sitting where he is now. Sarawakians know how democracy works.
But Sarawakians take issues with Malayan politicians who keep coming to Sarawak and telling us what is wrong with us and our system, or what is good or bad for us.
It’s not just those who believe in GPS, the party ruling Sarawak now, who do not welcome unsolicited comments from across the South China Sea on how Sarawak should be governed or how Sarawakians should behave.
Sarawakians aligned to other Sarawak-based parties, too, aren’t receptive of Malayans poking their noses into the affairs of Sarawakians.
Shortly after May 9 Sarawak BN ceased to exist. The former components of the Umno-controlled coalition who have banded together under GPS, however, still hold true to that stand and that the political battle for state control should be fought by Sarawakians among and between Sarawakians.
Right now, Sarawakians just want to be Sarawakians. They want the game played among Sarawakians only, which is why Baru Bian gets to remain as Sarawak PKR chief.
The majority of the party’s Sarawak members voted him back because they didn’t like the idea of PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim telling them who should lead them. It was also why only a handful of Sarawakians welcomed Dr Mahathir during his recent visit to Bintulu to sell his Bersatu to them.
After Baru Bian’s “shocking” win on Saturday (he won in absentia, which surely shocked Malayans) and what happened to Dr Mahathir in Bintulu, politicians from Malaya must know their rightful place – role rather – in Sarawak politics.
The message undoubtedly is, Sarawakians are friendly people. They love associating, and that includes associating in politics. That was why we had Sarawak parties in BN and Sarawakians who are members of Malaya-based parties.
By and large, the principle behind such an association is the same, which is you believe you have a common enemy, and your combined strength should keep your enemy at bay as you scratch each other’s back but always mindful of not stepping on each other’s toes.
For 22 years this seemed to work well for Dr Mahathir when he was prime minister the first time. It also worked well for Najib, which was the reason why Umno did not venture to cross the South China Sea.
It was also the reason why the parties making Sarawak BN that time took the firm stand that Umno should not do what Bersatu did recently – because as friends we should not step on each other’s toes, and because Sarawakians want to do things the Sarawakian way.
In Sarawak, they want no outside interference. You may be the head of Malaysia’s biggest party, a menteri besar, a minister or even the prime minister himself, but in Sarawak they want everything Sarawakian.
They don’t want an outsider telling them the Sarawak Land Code should follow the national land law.
Sarawakians don’t want an outsider who says something only to deny when the subject touches raw nerves.
Sarawakians are suspicious when non-Sarawakians take particular interest in certain areas of their life.
Today we are more defensive than ever because it suddenly dawns upon us that what should stop must stop (such as the plunder of the state’s oil and gas resources) and all wrongs put in their right perspective (the Territorial Sea Act 2012, for example).
The internet has helped us to understand a lot of things.
Be reminded that while nations get closer to each other in the borderless world, the peninsula and Borneo are drifting further apart politically because dishonest and manipulative leaders are foolish enough not to realise that their dishonesty and manipulations are stinking to high heaven in cyberspace.
Take it from me, Sarawakians’ understanding of things will improve further in the months ahead as the internet coverage widens, and national political leaders better not commit calculated blunders or risk being made to look like they don’t deserve to be where they are.
Worse, they are killing the spirit of the federation.
