Sarawak: The Chief Minister's secret search for haze experts
1997-10-06
The Sarawak Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, has returned
from his holiday with his family overseas, leaving the state the
day of the "haze emergency" in a chartered aircraft. We were all
mistaken about the holiday, it seems. He went overseas, so he
said yesterday, to look for health and haze experts to help in
ameliorating the smoky haze that had hovered at dangerous levels
for most of last month. If that was indeed the reason, why was
his departure kept so secret and why was his personal office
reluctant to say where he was. That would have been laudable, a
chief minister rushing to ensure the welfare of his people.
But he left secretly. And he returned secretly. And as the
New Straits Times report said this morning: Taib left the state
with his family. Accusing the DAP leader, Mr Lim Kit Siang, of
ignorance for alleging that he had "run away" from the state and
and that the DAP did not have capable leaders in the state does
not address the question: If his trip was for laudable state
reasons, why was this visit kept hidden when those in the state
was looking for any scrap of information that would lift the gloorm?
Why did he leave, and return, secretly? Or is this search for
experts the gloss for his dereliction of duty to the state?
Methinks this linking of his flight with that of the state is
to ensure that the state would pick up the tab for his chartered
flight and holiday overseas. And since he says it was to look for
experts, why has he not said where he went in search of experts, who
he saw, and who were the civil service officials who went with him
in this search for a cure for the haze? One hopes that all this
would be contained in the "comprehensive plan" to overcome problems
relating to haze. But that would be a vain hope. It would be secret
anyway. So another scandal is swept under the proverbial carpet
-- and the people pay for their leader's misdeeds.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my
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