Sarawak Infrastructure Development and Communications Minister Michael Manyin Jawong has dismissed the opposition’s charges that he grabbed land in his rural constituency, saying that despite the accusation, he still managed to win “handsomely” during the last Sarawak state election.
He said both he and his Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) colleague, Roland Sagah, who is the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly deputy speaker, had been charged by the opposition of grabbing three-quarters of the land in Serian.
He was speaking at a handover ceremony of Bumiputera common reserve (agriculture) land here on Tuesday.
He said the Pakatan Rakyat had levelled the accusation against him prior to the 2011 state election, through flyers distributed to the people.
Manyin and Sagah are the state assemblymen for the Tebedu and Tarat constituencies, both either fully or partly under the Serian district.
Whether or not Michael Manyin has a personal interest in the land-stripping activities of the companies brought in under his watch in Tebedu, he should take full responsibility for the criminal destruction of the NCR lands in his constituency.
His own constituents were cheated and tricked by a company with the full backing of politicians, who should have been protecting their interests and Manyin was one of them.
Sarawak Report has documented the whole dirty story already and it can be read in our Spotlight Section on our front page for those who want to remind themselves.
Just five headmen from a total of 14 communities were selected to sign a secret agreement in English, which they did not understand, surrendering their valuable timber and lands for just RM50 per family! The other local people knew nothing about it and they never saw the money either.
Manyin backed this move and never responded to cries for support from his constituents against the company, which belonged to local businessmen.
Wether or not these two local businessmen from Alliance Bahagia Sdn Bhd were Michael Manyin’s proxies, he supported their land grab fraud against the interests of his people whom he is elected to serve and it stinks.
As for claiming he was elected back – Michael Manyin went round threatening to cut off the electricity of longhouses which didn’t vote for him. That is the sort of democrat he is!