A step out in one stride means homesickness – Border Inn, Chinese poet Zheng Chouyu. (file photo of border of Ba Kalelan, Sarawak and Long Bawan, Indonesia)
THE Land Below The Wind welcomed me last week with warm morning sunshine. Having been in the rain-swept Kuching for weeks, the sunshine excited me as it meant a sunset to look forward to at my favourite place – the KK Waterfront.
Over the week, what Sarawak newspapers had missed out was a wedding photographer’s account on recovering his stolen four-wheel drive from Long Bawan, the Indonesian town just a step away from our own Ba Kelalan.
Benny Liew related to The Borneo Post in Sabah that his car was stolen at his house in Penampang on Jan 25. He made a police report and posted his loss on social media.
“A friend in Sarawak who saw my status in Facebook told me he saw my Toyota Land Cruiser in Ba Kelalan, heading towards the Indonesian border, the final stop for most smuggled cars from Sabah and Sarawak before being sold in Long Bawan.”
Wasting no time, Benny headed to Lawas, continuing on to Ba Kelalan, then Long Bawan.
The wedding photographer was shocked to see hundreds of cars, mostly four-wheel-drives with Sabah number plates, at Long Bawan. With the help of the local police, Benny managed to locate his lost car. In his words: “Without number plate but still in good condition.”
He brought back hundreds of photos – not wedding photos obviously – but those of supposedly lost cars, and informed the police. He also video-recorded his interviews with the locals.
A first-person account compelled the cops to set up a special task force and revealed that since 2014, five hundred and fifty-six (556) four-wheel-drives have been reported stolen, and that they are seeking co-operation from the Sarawak police to solve the problem.
Within a week of the report, the Sabah police nabbed six suspects with one admitting he was the “runner” who drove stolen 4WD vehicles from Sabah to Long Bawan, and was paid between RM500 and RM1,000 per vehicle.
Perhaps, the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry could take note of this lead provided by Benny:
Most kedai runcit (retail shops) are also selling goods with Kedai 1Malaysia brand. Our petrol and diesel also sold here.
Yes, it takes courageous law-abiding people like Benny to expose smuggling activities perpetrated in broad daylight, and help nail the culprits. Lest we forget, all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
This is probably the most quoted statement attributed to Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher Edmund Burke. There are a number of variants but it does trigger a certain sense of right and wrong. According to the Book of James (in the Holy Book), whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him, it is a sin.
Meanwhile, in my own hometown (Sibu), the shootings continued. Even as the warm sunshine in Sabah greeted me, a newspaper printing plant and a senior minister’s house took hits from a drive-by shooting.
With the echoes of three earlier such shootings yet to die down, the men in blue should be busy doing a carpet sweep so as not to miss any clues or leads.
Will there be a Benny in my own hometown to shed some light on the shooting incidents? If the shootings were to continue with Chinese New Year round the corner, it certainly would be more difficult to tell the din of firecrackers from the sound of gunshots in the neighbourhood.
Many are obviously taking the law into their own hands. As a last resort to stop the Lori Hantu (ghost lorries) from tearing up the Bakun Road and terrorising other road users, the Public Works Department (JPJ), at the Chief Minister’s instruction, had installed height-restriction metal barriers along the road earlier this week.
However, as a JPJ spokesman has pointed out, the operators of these “ghost lorries” could still circumvent the obstacles by reducing the height of their illegal trucks.
But why should they spend money modifying their vehicles when all they needed to do was to dismantle the barriers and pass through with no obstruction?
Indeed, within 24 hours of its installation – just as fast as the news made the rounds and even before the two other planned barriers had been put up – one metal barrier was taken down.
It should not be too far off to assume that the culprits were drivers of the unregistered four-wheel hantu, overloaded with logs and fresh oil palm fruit branches.
Is this an open challenge to the authorities – like the gunshots fired at buildings and houses in Sibu apparently were? It really does take another person – one as civic-minded and perseverant as Benny – to make a police report over the “barrier” incident. Or is there a video out there to share?
The Bible also says when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
The Chief Minister is all out to combat illegal logging, cyber gambling and corruption but unfortunately, it is common for people to keep mum when injustice flares up.
A solid NO to these illegal activities will make a huge difference.