DISHEARTENING: Frusis (centre), accompanied by the DAP members, after lodging a police report in Sri Aman yesterday.
KUCHING: The life of farmer Frusis Lebi, who has deformed hands and feet, has recently turned into a living hell.
However, the hardship his family is presently experiencing has nothing to do with his deformity.
Things have fallen through the floor for this 51-year-old villager from Kampung Entulang Entawa in Sri Aman because he did not keep his political affiliations discreet.
During the run-up to the 10th state election in April last year, Frusis openly supported the opposition and even flew an opposition flag near his house, and because of that his RM300 monthly assistance from the Welfare Department, which he had been receiving for years, suddenly stopped last October.
Also halted were fertilizer and fruit seedling subsidies from the Agriculture Department.
Compounding his family’s woes is that his eldest son is also physically handicapped, and as such they depend on the welfare assistance and government subsidies to make ends meet.
Relating his ordeal to The Borneo Post yesterday, Frusis claimed that instructions to cancel all government assistance and subsidies came from the Assistant Minister of Agriculture’s Office. He said he had proof of this because a sympathiser had given him a photocopy of the letter addressed to the assistant director of the Sri Aman Agriculture Department.
That letter, written in Bahasa Malaysia, is dated Dec 8, 2011.
Among others, it reads as follows: “I request that any form of government assistance provided by your department to Encik Frusis Lebi, an underprivileged person (OKU) from Entulang Entawa, Sri Aman, all this while be stopped with immediate effect.
“This is because he is against government policies and openly supported the opposition candidate during the 2011 state election. Apart from that, he had also provided an operation room for the opposition candidate.”
Describing the action as ‘‘unfair and unjust’’, Frusis, accompanied by Sri Aman DAP chairman Leon Jemat Donald and a few members, lodged a report at the Sri Aman police station yesterday.