1. Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang warned ‘outsiders’ not to mess around with the Ibans.
2. Foremost, he said, these outsiders must never show disrespect for the community’s tradition and culture.
3. The Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) deputy president said they must adhere to the Iban rituals whenever they entered longhouses otherwise bad luck would befall them.
4. By ‘outsiders’ Jabu seemed to mean opposition members from Peninsular Malaysia as he related an incident where supposedly bad luck befell the visitors.
5.Jabu claimed that the visitors to an opposition meeting in 2008, which was linked to the setting up of a branch in Lubok Antu, did not go through the normal ritual causing someone to die on that particular day. He insisted that the incident which happened at a longhouse was not just a coincidence
6. “The Ibans associated such incident with ‘salah burung’ because they did not fully observe the Iban adat,” he said during a press conference at his office here, yesterday. He said he felt sorry for the folk of the longhouse where the opposition members had gathered. Jabu said it was not their fault that their relative died but that the visitors should have observed certain rituals before entering the longhouse.
7. Jabu said because these visitors from outside Sarawak were in the rush to set up the branch, they had, according to him, seriously ignored the Iban adat that was observed by more than 700,000 Ibans in Sarawak. “Well, I can tell them it is dangerous if they don’t get their feet on the ground,” he said. Jabu said he visited Batang Ai on Tuesday and more than 100 headmen welcomed him and told him of what had transpired then. He said according to these headmen, the opposition members had come from Kuching and Sabah.
8. “Present then, were the same people who quarrelled with Karpal Singh, the DAP advisor (chairman), and also those who had mentioned (talked against) the Hudud law,” he said.
Jabu said the Lubok Antu people were worried of such development, which according to him were alien to the villagers. “The people in Lubok Antu are worried because they (PKR members) are saying things which are not known to Sarawakians,” he said. These things were negative elements which could disrupt racial harmony, he pointed out. “Sometimes it is very disheartening to hear people from outside the state claiming they know a lot more than people on the ground but how many of them have been to Batang Ai?” he asked. “When they came to Batang Ai, did they comply with the local customs and adat of the Batang Ai people? You (media) have to take this into consideration as well,” he said.
9. Jabu said Lubok Antu people wanted uninterrupted development to ensure the objectives of the Vision 2020 could be achieved. Moreover, he said, people in Lubok Antu were already mature enough and that they wanted the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) to materialise.
10. “Let me tell them (opposition) it will be a great mistake if they underrate the support of the Batang Ai people for BN government because the tempo of development brought by the BN is increasing all the time so much so that if you notice, the late Jonathan Nawin was in opposition but for the sake of the Lubok Antu people, he voluntarily joined the government,” he said. “The same also happened to the late David Jemut who had the good sense to return to BN for the sake of the people. Therefore, they will choose Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate to represent them,” he declared.
11. On who would be the eventual BN candidate in the Batang Ai by-election, Jabu said he did not know. “I am as eager as you. Your guess is as good as mine. I cannot speculate,” he said.
“I believe in any election, in so far as BN goes, the names of all the potential candidates would be handed over to chairman of BN for him to assess and study thoroughly. “We will leave it to the good judgement of the Chief Minister who will also be discussing the matter with the Prime Minister.
12. “That has always been the BN tradition and we do not want it to be any different,” he said.
He also claimed that he did not know how many names were on the BN candidate list.
13. Asked on the issues the opposition had been harping upon, Jabu said: “The issue now is we do not want to have meetings underneath a tree.” He was referring to the Perak Pakatan Rakyat ‘state legislative assembly’ (DUN) that convened a meeting underneath a tree recently.
theborneopost.com
