Jabu: I will not be distracted by bloggers

By Churchill Edward

KUCHING: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang said he will not fall prey to bloggers who are trying to keep him away from his constituents.

Jabu, who holds the portfolios of Minister of Rural Development and Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications, said bloggers’ criticism of him would not prevent him from maintaining his personal touch with the grassroots.

He said what the bloggers were trying to do was to confine him to his desk answering their accusations and allegations, which he would never do because he needed to know the feel of the ground.

He said as a minister he would be too busy just to sit down at his desk responding to bloggers’ criticisms, particularly those levelled against him, the state government and the Barisan Nasional (BN).

“If I am confined to my desk at my office answering to the blogs, I will be falling into the trap of this people (bloggers) who are trying to entrap me or to immobilise me so that I will not be in contact with the people who depend on the portfolios assigned to me,” Jabu said to reporters in his office in Wisma Bapa Malaysia after receiving a courtesy call from The Netherlands Ambassador to Malaysia, Lody Embrechts, yesterday.

He said: “I don’t have any intention to reply (to the bloggers) otherwise I will end up not being mobile. My portfolios require that I look after rural development apart from visiting rural areas. These are my priorities,” he said.

Jabu, who is Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) deputy president said: “I have my own conscience and programmes. If the best of what I have done are still not good to the people who disagree with me, then it is up to them to make their interpretations.”

He said he would rather leave it to the general public (or the electorates) to make judgment on his performance.

“Everybody is entitled to his own opinion. They can do what they like as long as it is within limits. But I believe nobody, including the bloggers, are perfect,” he said. He said he would not copy his critics by setting up his own blog just to counter them.

Of late blogs set up by some Dayak intellectuals have mushroomed. Some of the articles published by these blogs are not so kind to the government.

Jabu said he could not tell if the criticisms would affect the election result of the next State polls which could be held before 2011.

Jabu yesterday went on to relate what he had done since becoming minister in the 1970s.

“One of the things that I do is to consistently believe that it was indeed a good thing that I am entrusted by the government to pursue an organisation, Salcra. It started in 1976 after I introduced the Salcra Bill in the State Legislative Assembly,” he said.

“I tell you about my experience. Since 15 years ago there were already a lot of criticisms levelled against me and most of them were from my own people and community (the Iban) and I don’t expect it to end. Even now we have the blocking and blogging which I don’t have any control over,” he said.

By ‘blocking’, it could only be assumed that Jabu was referring to illegal blockades aimed at stopping land development.

“But my conscience tells me that when I do my job, I will do it well. As chairman of Salcra, despite all the criticisms from the opposition, the bloggers and blocking included, last year I was successful in distributing RM52 million dividends to 16,000 participants of Salcra,” he said.

“And in spite of it I didn’t get any credit from them including those from my own community. But I don’t mind that. It was not that I wanted credit or praise. No. But it is my duty to serve and if I can help a lot of people - more people would be happy. There were few people (who are) not so happy but then such is the order of the world,” he said.

He said should he stop becoming Salcra (Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority) chairman 15 years ago, he could not imagine as to what would happen to the participants now.

“Now Salcra has managed to pay out dividends to last year’s 16,000 participants who were among the more than 80,000 people benefitting from dividends worth a total RM295 million,” he said.

“If there are people still criticising me for that, I advise them to name any organisation which can performed 10 per cent of what Salcra - the organisation that was entrusted to me to lead - had done,” he said.

“I leave it to the general public to make judgment. I think, in whatever we do and for as long as we got clear conscience, commitment to people, to get results, practising social corporate responsibility and being accountable to the Salcra Board as well as to government, my conscience is clear,” he said.

Jabu also commented on the request by the blog dayakbaru.com to the government to set up ‘Dayak Centre for Community Change’.

He said the blog may come up with whatever name they wished for such centre.

“It may sound palatable (pleasant) but no name can be impressive enough unless they (proposers) can proof themselves by delivering the goods,” he said.

Jabu said he had endured criticisms for the last 35 years, including those coming from the blogs now, and that he was not about to throw in the towel.