DAP queries silence on Adenan’s pledge

KUCHING: The DAP wants Sarawak’s ministers to take a public stand on Chief Minister Adenan Satem’s pledge three days ago that he will not allow his immediate family members to apply for state land and timber concessions.

Adenan gave the pledge to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) which came up with the suggestion conveyed to all Chief Ministers and the Menteri Besar.

“We applaud the public pledge by Adenan,” DAP Sarawak chief Chong Chieng Jen said in a statement.

“But it’s disturbing that no Sarawak minister has so far come forward to applaud Adenan for his anti-nepotism move or make a similar public pledge.”

To make Adenan’s pledge more meaningful, DAP suggested that he also observe the following four measures:

1. All cabinet ministers and assistant ministers must be directed not to have their immediate family members involved in application for state land and logging licences;

2. Subject cases of land lease renewal and alienation of all state land for genuine public purposes like education, health, roads and charity, to the public tender process to generate maximum benefits to the state;

3. All awards of logging licences and government contracts must be subject to public scrutiny; and

4. All state ministers, assistant ministers and their immediate family members must make public declarations of assets regularly.

A system and written policy for transparent, clean and good governance needs to be drawn up, said Chong.

“The Sarawak government,” added Chong who is Kuching MP, state assemblyman for Kota Sentosa and DAP national vice-chairman, “must take due note of the fact that hundreds of thousands of hectares of state land and timber concessions have been alienated over the years to Sarawak Barisan Nasional leaders and their family members.”

“So, it’s not just enough for Adenan to make a pledge against such practices,” said Chong. “There must be a system and written policy drawn up for the implementation of transparent, clean and good governance.”

“The test for Adenan is whether he is alone or backed by all his BN members in the combat against nepotism in Sarawak,” he added. - FMT