Over the last week, it was widely reported that the atrocious boarding facilities and lack of text books at a secondary school in Sundar were exposed by Ba Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian, and how swiftly the state Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah responded by contacting him over the matter.
This is, of course, not the first time such outrageous stories have come to light about substandard rural school conditions. The 2014 Auditor-General’s Report showed that of the visits to 145 schools, 85.5 per cent of the schools were dilapidated. 388 of the 1,452 schools in Sarawak were in bad state.
But I digress right from the outset!
What struck me was not the communication of the two principal players, but the lack of it from the fact that the minister found out about the situation in the school from the opposition representative was highlighted in the newspapers.
It was touted as a show of mature politics when it also shows how immature our politics is!
Are the two sworn political rivals and therefore sworn personal enemies? Is the political divide also a personal divide? If the minister is a minister of the people of Sarawak, then can she ward off the calls of a member of the opposition in trying to highlight the problem of the opposition’s constituency?
One of the problems in this scenario is of course politicians wear several hats at a time. She wears a political hat going into election as a member of a political party. When she wins she gets into state legislative as a representative of the people in the constituency who voted her in. When she is appointed a minister, she gets to represent the government of Sarawak and the people of Sarawak at large and she swears to uphold the interest of the state and her people.
In times past, being on the opposite of political divide was like being sworn enemies.
In Singapore if you said the wrong thing and on the wrong side you could be bankrupted or sent fleeing the country. At best you are a political pariah not worth a pinch of salt.
In Malaysia, like Karpal Singh, he at least got a posthumous pat on the back from political enemies. At worst, you get the hard cold cell in Kamunting Detention Centre under the Internal Security Act, as Karpal also received from Dr Mahathir, along with Lim Kit Siang.
Fatimah has been said to be a hard working minister. Couldn’t Baru Bian have quietly phoned the minister, informed her of the dire circumstances of the school, and got a similarly quick and positive response from the same minister? Has he to tell the world he is working?
But politics is politics. Chong Chieng Jen as head of the opposition in Sarawak causes a ruckus in the House and lets rip at the government’s policies. Like a younger Lim Kit Siang of yesteryears, he stirs attention to communicate.
And Abdul Karim Hamzah has been the government’s staunchest defendant. In their own times they have been at each other’s throat. But still, Chong led a DAP delegation to visit the former at his home during Hari Raya. Maaf Zahir dan Batin. Perhaps it is not so personal after all. Politicians know when to leave the lambasting at their office and at the DUN.
But what is known is that members within the government gets a RM500,000 spending money for projects in their constituencies whereas this is denied the opposition seats. When doing this, is the government wearing the executive hat and holding on to a political heart? This issue was taken up in court but has been thrown out.
Words have been around of how often members within the Barisan Nasional themselves get to see their previous boss. Some had no chance to see the previous chief minister even once a year. A recent remark from a friend informed that his political master, an Honourable member of the state assembly has been to meet the current Chief Minister more, in the short spell that the current minister has been elevated, than all the span of years the former Chief Minister was in office.
Perhaps it comes down to the person in the office rather than it is with the notion of political divide. Thus, perhaps the question of communication is not one of political divide.
It must smell as fresh air when the then new Chief Minister opened the door of his office to PKR members for a meeting as well as to meet up with the DAP members of DUN. If in public there is a line of communication, then it surely must be a line of communication behind the public arena towards solving issues of the public.
Perhaps this is where Fatimah had taken a leaf from her political master to be more open to the opposition in solving matters of importance to the rakyat.
Of late other avenues have opened up for politicians to ventilate their opinions. Even an opposition member such as See Chee How is given space in this daily to have his say, and indeed he has enlightened much of the wheels in motion in the political circle while BN state assemblyman Dr Annuar Rapaee also has his column in this newspaper.
As the PAC committee and its inquiry into the 1MDB fiasco shows, at some point in time both, Members of Parliament from the government and the opposition have to come together at the table to discuss serious issues plaguing the country. However, it is also an example where both sides are still trying to score political points inside and outside of the committee table. One would wonder how the parties are ever able to investigate the matter objectively when outwardly they tear each other apart.
Well, politicians will always be politicians. They will have to play to the public. At the same time they will have to work out a solution in substance for the public. The taste of the pudding is in the eating.
For the sake of the students in SMK Sundar, we hope they get their new mattresses and the text books in one whole piece.
For the sake of Sarawak let’s hope our politicians will do more talking to each other.
Write Straight, Write Sharp!