Cornelia is 'Dayung Iyang Siburan 2012'

KUCHING: A matriculation graduate, Cornelia Natashia Ernest,18, outshone nine other contestants to win the ‘Dayung Iyang Siburan 2012’ beauty contest held at Kampung Seratau Communbity Hall yesterday night.

Cornelia flanked by Madelina (right)
and Claudia (left). 

As the title winner, Cornelia from Kampung Seratau and is waiting for the offer from universities to further her study, walked away with RM800 cash prize, a trophy, a hamper from Nescafe and certificate.

The first runner-up went to Madelina Lija, a 21-year-old student of Universiti Teknokogi Malaysia (UiTM) Mukah.

Hailed from Kampung Seratau, Madelina received RM500 cash, a trophy, a hamper from Nescafe and certificate while third place winner is Claudia Delis Peter Kutai, 26, of Kampung Sungai Du-uh and she received RM300 cash, a trophy, a hamper from Nescafe and a certificate.

The consolation prizes winners were Tiffany Abby Miounsey, Catilina Kaleen Guyut, Georgina Allisson Guyut, Kimberly Freddie, Betsy Lonia Thomas Budis, Helena Handri and Jessica Degaul. They all received hampers from Nescafe.

The inaugural competition was organised by Kampung Seratau Women’s Bureau in conjunction with this year’s Gawai celebration.

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Baru on the 18-Point Agreement

PKR State Assemblyman fir Ba’kelalan Baru Bian has urged the state government to look into Sarawak’s rights as set out in the 18-Point Agreement during the formation of Malaysia. Baru was concerned that the state’s rights had been slowly and insidiously eroded without anyone realising it.

Highlighting several areas of concern, he said it was agreed that there should be no state religion in Sarawak as the state was of a different ethnic composition from Peninsular Malaysia.

“The absence of a state religion is a hallmark of Sarawak agreeing to join in the formation of Malaysia in 1963, due to the wisdom of our forefathers who acknowledged that Sarawak is a land for all creeds or beliefs to mutually prosper and grow with respect for each other’s rights and freedom,” he said during the debate on the Head of State’s address in the State Assembly yesterday.

As such, Baru said he was disturbed to note that the State Planning Unit’s publication Sarawak Facts and Figures 2010 stated on page two that Islam was the official religion of Sarawak.

He requested clarification on this matter and hoped for reassurance that this point of the agreement had not been amended or taken away.

Baru called for clarification on whether there was an official language for Sarawak as the same publication had stated that Bahasa Malaysia was the official language.

He said the 18-Point Agreement preserved the use of English as one of the state’s official languages, a right that was further safeguarded in the Federal Constitution.

“We are perhaps the only State Assembly in Malaysia which allows any language spoken in Sarawak to be used in this August House. On that premise, there cannot be an official language for Sarawak,” he said.

He added that more Sarawakians should be appointed to senior state and Federal government positions in Sarawak as called for in the “Borneonisation” clause of the 18-Point Agreement.

On another matter, Baru said the setting up of moral or religious clubs in schools should be made clear to the principals.

He said such clubs should be encouraged rather than hindered through red tape or preconditions because they provided a firm grounding in spiritual and moral values in youths, which in turn would keep them from straying into lives of crime in their later years.

“As a Christian, I wish to acknowledge the contributions made by the Inter-School Christian Fellowship (ISCF) in many schools throughout Sarawak before and after my time in the 1970s.

“But unfortunately some schools are not very open to have such clubs or religious bodies formed in their schools today,” he said.

Referring to one case, he said an application to set up ISCF in SMK Merapok was rejected by the principal on the ground that there was no approval from the state education director.

As such, Baru asked the minister in charge to make a clear stand on this matter.
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Entulu alleged SWP moblising phantom supporters

KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) deputy president Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun alleged that the Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) prime mover Datuk Sng Chee Hua has resorted to mobilising ‘phantom supporters’ to shore up his public gatherings in Selangau.

He cited few instances in the past week where the ‘supporters’ who attended Sng’s functions in the parliamentary constituency were actually outsiders, especially youths from Sibu.

“I am compelled to come up with a statement because Datuk Sng actually does not have many supporters in my kawasan in Selangau. Any claims that SWP received good response in Selangau were mere propaganda by Datuk Sng,” Entulu told The Borneo Post here yesterday.

Entulu who is also the Deputy Minister of Rural and Regional Development disclosed that Sng, who had made at least three visits to Selangau last week had in fact fabricated the actual number of his supporters.

“His meet-the-people session which was supposed to be held at Rh Jungan, at 36th Mile Sibu-Bintulu Road, was cancelled due to the lack of supporters.

“On the other hand, mine which was held just 20 metres away at Rh Maramat was attended by at least 700 people,” said Entulu.

Entulu also alleged that Sng had tried to sabotage his function at Rh Subing which is about 2km from Rh Madat, where Sng held his function.

He alleged that Sng’s function at Pasai Siong was attended by youngsters from Sibu and other areas.

“Last Saturday night when he had his function at Rh Francis Jitai, he claimed he had 1,200 supporters but actually only 300 to 400 people came.

“On the other hand, some 700 supporters came to my function held at Pasai Siong on the same night,” claimed Entulu.

He pointed out that he was not scared to face Sng in Selangau in the coming general election.

“And if he dares to take up my challenge, only then do we know that he is not being used by people with ulterior motive.”

The PRS strongman also challenged Sng to fight in areas where he had served before, namely in Julau and Kapit, where his chances to win should be good.

“Instead of just targeting PRS areas, he must also set his sight on other BN areas such as Kapit where he was an assemblyman in Pelagus, which covers Kapit town.”

Entulu also pointed out that Sng contradicted himself when he said that SWP was a BN friendly party but was going all out against PRS, a component of the BN.

“If he thinks that he is strong and has a strong backing, SWP should contest in all the 31 (parliamentary) seats in the state instead of just going for the six PRS seats.”

Currently, out of the 31 seats, 29 are under the BN and two seats namely Bandar Kuching and Sibu are under the DAP, a component of Pakatan Rakyat.

Out of the 29 seats held by BN, 14 are under PBB; six under PRS; five under SUPP and four under SPDP.

what people says....

Entulu, it's premature to determine who actually has the support of the people until it's determined at GE13. If you are really clean, transparent, efficient caring and consciously working for your constituents, you have got nothing to worry. If you are not, people will surely dump you if you are nominated to re-contest. SWP whether under Chee Hua or his son Larry will not make any difference to the political landscape of Sarawak. PR will. PR will probably form the next federal government. They are determined to bring about Election Reform which at this point in time is of paramount importance, to eradicate corrpution, to eliminate cronyism and to deliver a fair, transparent and just system of government for the good of all Malaysians including Sarawakians and Sabahans..
If dayaks leaders want to have a strong political platform, they must only form one dayaks based party just like umno, where they can have more seats to present either as DUN or MP. Dayaks should avoid 'crab mentality'. Dayaks being the majority must adhere to this suggestion or we will continue to see another dayaks political parties being deregistered or seeing expelled members that will ruin dayaks. PBDS and SNAP history taught dayaks a good lesson. WAKE UP DAYAKS, I KNOW YOU CAN MAKE IT!
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Gambling serious in Sarawak

State Assembly women for Pending YB Violet Yong in her blog wrote that she had asked the Chief Minister of Sarawak cum Minister of Finance in the State Assembly on how much sales tax had been collected by the State Government from lottery tickets for the respective years of 2000 until 2006.

She mentioned that most of us only know that there is a 10% tax imposed when purchasing lottery tickets but as to how much sales tax had been collected by the Sarawak State government over the years, it remains a "BIG" questionmark.

"We, as Sarawakian cum tax payers, have the right to demand for the answer," he said.

And here is the answer she got from the question she asked:

Year 2000 is RM37,444,173.05
Year 2001 is RM38,425,759.40
Year 2002 is RM39,783,929.25
Year 2003 is RM42,740,097.00
Year 2004 is RM78,154,187.30
Year 2005 is RM94,352,199.80
Year 2006 is RM85,887,379.00 (Unaudited)

Total: RM416,787,724.80

Violet also wanted to know where has all the money gone? The issue has been debated in the local newspaper for the last four days, but until today no answer has been given by the government on where and how the money collected has been spent.

Meanwhile several community leaders expressed their concern and had asked the authority ti reduce the number draws as they believe a large number of people who patronise the lottery outlets are poor people.

They seriously think the government should reduce as much as possible the frequency of the lottery draws.

There were four draws in a week on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday and also on Tuesday when the operators ran special draws.

"There are only seven days in a week and our people are gambling on four days. I can only describe our country as a ‘gambling country, said Sibu United Chinese Association (UCA) president Ting Huat Chie.

He said the amount of tax collected was huge considering that the state only had a population of 2.6 million.

Ting also opined that the additional 10% tax imposed was also unfair as it increased the burden of the people.

He too questioned how the state government used the tax collected from the lottery sales, urging there should be transparency on how this money is spent.

Others said gambling should not be encouraged because it will create many social problems, especially when one is addicted to it.

With a population of only 2.6 million, Sarawak’s sales tax collections from lottery sales is stupefying. The state government rakes in more than RM100mil annually.

The 10 sen tax imposed on every RM1 lottery ticket sold contributed RM103.4mil to the state coffers in 2008, RM114mil in 2009, RM115.7mil in 2010 and RM77.9mil up to Sept 30 last year and the figures are increasing.

Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen said, given the state’s small population, the amount collected was “shocking”.

He felt that the authorities should discourage gambling in the state, saying that for a start, the Government should scrap the special draws which are offered once or twice in a month by the operators which could reduce the sales tax by 20%.

Chong, the Sarawak DAP secretary, said that during the last State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting in November, he had asked for the amount of total sales tax collected from lotteries but only received a written reply from Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh on May 9 through a dispatch boy from the August house.

On the 5% royalties collected from oil, Chong cited the Finance Ministry’s record which said the quantum in 2007 amounted to RM999.1mil, RM1,322.6mil (2008), RM894.2mil (2009), RM899.2mil (2010) and RM1,096.5mil last year.

As for the 5% gas royalties, the quantum collected in 2007 was RM561.4mil, RM819.6mil (2008), RM970.7 mil (2009), RM830.8mil (2010) and RM953.48mil last year.

Chong said the issue of increasing the rate of oil and gas royalties for the state from 5% to 20% was frequently raised in the august house but the minister insisted that the matter be put to negotiation at the highest level.

According to Chong, the minister had said any increase in the payment of royalties might adversely affect the Federal Government’s capacity to finance its operating and development budgets.

“It may have a bearing on the state and people, particularly on critical and strategic national subjects like education, health care, security and infrastructure,” said Wong.

Wong also said instead of higher royalties, the state government would seek bigger development allocation from the Federal Government.

Chong said Wong’s written reply was different from a statement he made in a previous sitting a few years ago when he said the state government would ask for higher oil and gas royalties.

“The state government has reduced itself to begging for more funds,” Chong said.

He said he was disappointed that it took Wong half a year to reply to his questions.

Chong said Wong’s reply came when he had submitted similar questions for the present DUN sitting thinking that the minister had refused to answer them.

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