The injustices in this country are getting increasingly blood-boiling and intolerable. When I think about it I just want to get up and scream at the assholes turning this otherwise beautiful nation into a shit place to live in. And I wish I could do something to help make a change. So here's what I'm doing. I'm writing.

I have a friend. Every once in a while she goes back to Sarawak, where her parents and grandparents and greatgrandparents and their greatgrandparents have lived for centuries. Her uncle has a plot of land there, which he inherited from his ancestors. On it he built a simple but comfortable summer home. He reared pigs and chickens and dug a fish pond for his fishes. The plot of land was spacious, with an abundance of lush green trees breathing peace and calm into all and sundry.

The family has OWNED that beautiful place for centuries. Lived in it and made a livelihood out of it. Way before the colonial rulers and the current government came to rule the state. The land, very clearly, belongs to them. NO ONE, whether the king of this world or otherwise, has the right to snatch that posession away. It's a simple principle of life. You do not take what belongs to somebody else. When a 7-year-old kid steals his friend's eraser, he has to apologize and give it back. Or buy a new one for his friend. Or pay his friend the cost of the eraser.

Even a 3 year old child knows that.

And it amazes me that full-grown adults, people we call leaders and look up to, politicians the rakyat trusted and voted into power, have no sense of morality or humanity whatsoever.

On a Tuesday morning last week, when my friend was sound asleep in that summer home in Sarawak, a herd of policemen came and surrounded the place. The occupants had to move out of the house IMMEDIATELY. Because the state was going to repossess the land to build a school. Thus there were bulldozers on standby to demolish the house. And there was to be no delay. There was no negotiating. No questions asked. Just get out of the house period.

"But how can this be?" my shocked friend asked a policeman. "The land posession case is still pending a decision from the court. You have no right to demolish the house!"

"Well honey we're just following orders."

And the nonchalant bunch began moving items out of the house. Drawers, rice cooker, closets, wall hangings, you name it. Carry, leave and GO! Carry, leave and GO! Like clockwork.

And then the mighty bulldozer struck, ramming its ferocious teeth into the slabs of concrete, tearing years of labour down in a matter of hours. Oh it was as easy as stripping paper! My oh my the whole scenario would have made such a good comedy if it wasn't happening for real.

But what about compensations? (A measly RM13,000 is all you're offering for the massive land and everything that comes with it? Dude don't insult our intelligence) What about where the elderly woman who has stayed there for years is going to live? What about OUR RIGHTS?

Well honey apparently you have none.

Because the Sarawak government stopped giving land permits under the Native Customary Rights (NCR) law to the natives of the state since 1958. This essentially means that if their farms were not established by 1958, their land "lawfully" belongs to the government even if they have lived in it/posessed it for centuries .

Even more apalling is this excerpt from the research paper Land Rights and Oil Palm Development in Sarawak:
"A 1994 amendment empowers the minister in charge of land matters to extinguish native customary rights to land. In 1996, the burden of proof with respect to NCRs was placed on the
native claimant against the presumption that the land belongs to the State."

And from this site, I found this bloodcurdling piece of info:
"Alfred Jabu was reported as saying since Salcra’s inception in 1986, RM295 million in dividends had been distributed to some 16,000 participants. Jabu is the current Salcra chairman.

He said there were altogether 16,000 participants and the scheme had been operating since 1986, thus it had been 22 years until 2008 – let’s just count 22 years since Jabu was reported in early 2009. Let’s also assume that all 16,000 participants were involved since day 1 of Salcra – talking about solidarity here of course.

So, RM295 million divide by 16,000 equals to RM18437.50. Wow, not even enough for a new Kancil. Then l remember that my Primary One Maths teacher had said that I had not completed the equation yet. So I must divide that amount by the 22 years – RM18437.50 / 22 = RM838.10. So, each participant receives RM838.10 per year, assuming again that all landowners have equal size of lands included in the Salcra oil palm scheme. WOW!

If we were to divide that further by the 12 months in each of the 22 years, we get RM69.84 or say we are generous by rounding the figure to RM70, per month, per landowner, over the last 22 years.

Now, didn’t I read somewhere that the revised BN Government’s poverty and hardcore poverty figures would make these Bumiputra landowners closer to living under less than US$1 per day by joining this “development” scheme?

So there you have it, Alfred Jabu, your “big” RM295 million sum had been broken down, into bare figures. Shame on you, for continuing to use total figures to hide key figures!!!

Then Jabu’s assistant, Gramong Juna, threw open more figures in the 26 May report. There is now the “incentive payment” that will be made annually until the company makes profit to enable it to pay the actual dividend amount. This is an obvious recognition of the failure of past practice of waiting for some 10 years at certain schemes before landowners get first dividend payment. At RM150 per hectare per year, or RM12.50 per month per hectare, this must be world record for the cheapest government-brokered business deal for the landowners.

The assistant minister then announced that cash incentive amounting to RM70,180.50 was paid to 174 participants from 22 longhouses"

You do the math.

We NEED change. My friend revealed that many native people have resigned themselves to their fate. They've been scarred so many times that they've come to adopt the "sigh what to do life's like that" mindset. They don't want to ruffle feathers. They're not happy, but they would rather live peacefully in poverty than to stand up and claim their rights because they believe they don't stand a chance. It's them against the colossal powers that be.

And I am livid. As a Malaysian citizen who has been brought up with a moral consciousness, I am appalled that in my country, the very people voted into power by the native citizens have manipulated and taken advantage of their gullibility and simple-mindedness.

And it worries me that more and more people will see their lives snatched from under their noses by this draconian law. We read about people falling to their death after a questionable interrogation, and of murd, er, deaths caused by high-profile leaders of this country, and of clowns causing commotion in Perak, but what about the natives of Borneo who have remained quiet all along despite being oppressed? What about those who have lived in this nation from way before when, and yet told they have no rights to their posessions? What about the villagers who watch their land being taken away and are then thrown a pathetic RM12.50 per month to shut them up?

What about them? Who's going to write about them? Who's going to help them stand up and be counted?

I'm so amused.

I wrote about Klang's Porno Chicken in KLue, and then my events editor Sarah got excited and requested that I tapau for her, so yesterday (which was a perfect day for a treat since it was my last day interning), I bought some for the office, and it was a total hit with the team even though the chickens have been refrigerated overnight and I was worried they would be disappointing. Totally unnecessary dude. Maybritt was going on about how good it was, then Fahmi came and ate some of Myra's and had a good laugh when I told him the story behind the name, then as I was leaving I heard ed director Wai Kit telling the big boss Adrian about it and then today, I find out that everyone's tweeting about it. Even ex-intern Kish and fellow intern Trina's boyfriend have heard bout it! haha. Pays to open your chicken stall beside a porn vcd stall! But you gotta give it to them. The chickens are really good!

Anyways, it's over! Three months of internship have just passed by in a flash. Sometimes I'm amazed at how time flies. And in a way, I do miss going to the office. I guess I just gotta get used to the bumming lifestyle. Not that I'm complaining mind you, cos I can finally FINALLY get around to tackling the pile of books+movies which have piled up since I started work. But I found myself waking up today worrying about my unfinished final blog post for KLue, and then I spent one hour finishing it up and then putting up the last listing I had to do. I'm too responsible I tell you.

Oh and I just found out a change in info and I'm gonna head back to the admin site to change my post. sigh.

But I've grown so much this past few months. Despite everything (with Camporama adding even more stress last month), I realize I've learnt so so much and I've never regretted getting placed there. The experiences I've had and the people I've met have been extremely eye-opening. Three months ago if you told me I'd be driving to KL regularly I would have scoffed at you. And if you told me I would be going on four-restaurants-a-day food trail I would scrunched up my nose (cos honestly I'm not much of a food connoisseur! Foodie yes, food connoisseur no). And if you told me I would have met Rubin at a chocolate launch I would have laughed. But guess what? I've done it all! Viva la KLue!

Here's to the past three months and the next six!