The Aborigine's Price Tag

Business? What Business is That?

Yesterday I was approached by a young street hawker who wanted to sell me a nice fake G-Shock watch for RM 300.00. I declined his offer and this man bargained for RM 100.00. Once again, I declined because I already had a watch. Being dissatisfied with my rejection, he bargained for RM 50.00. I was shocked because at the beginning he offered RM 300.00 by saying that it is an original watch. The RM 50.00 price is not worth an original G-Shock. That was so amazing! Then, politely I told him that I was not interested to buy the watch as I already had mine.

Bidayuh’s dignity can also be bargain until RM 1.99. After 47 years joining Malaysia Federation, Bidayuh’s dignity is getting cheaper and can be gained freely. The last GE had clearly shown that Bidayuh’s dignity is very cheap. Once, we were bought by SNAP and now being pawned to PBDS and SUPP. When the dignity’s price became lower, we were then traded to STAR and PBB. PBB gained Bidayuh’s dignity freely when they got the lucky draw from Bidayuh leaders after SNAP’s doom at Ming Court Hotel.

Mambong was SNAP’s secondary product that belonged to Stephen Kalong Ningkan. Because of the unanticipated market, Ming’s alliance had proposed to sell this product to PBB and PBDS through bidding. It was so cheap that SUPP got hold of a handful of Bidayuh’s dignity after PBB and PBDS decided to lessen the redundant stocks. Stephen Yong and Yong Khoon Seng had bid for the cheapest price and got Bengoh for the price of RM 1.00. As PBB saw Bidayuh’s dignity potential market had value equal to trash and dam, and so SUPP offer RM 1.99 to PBB. This price will be going down because Kampung Tun Abdul Razak project will bring negative effects to SALCRA’s and Naim Cendera Holdings investors who decided to develop Tun Abdul Razak City.

Meanwhile, in Serian, SUPP got a great offer after a few years of Bidayuh selling their dignity due to poverty and deficiency. UMNO, Tengku Adnan had bought Serian for the price of RM 1.99 and sold it back to George Chan for RM 0.99. Richard Riot had agreed to the price and got a RM 0.50 commission from BN. At the beginning, Richard Riot had decided to sell Serian for RM 10.00 but BN said that petroleum industry from preserved durians paste (Tempoyak) is no longer acceptable to OPAC. And so after a brief bargain, finally Serian was sold to SUPP with RM 0.99.

In the meantime, Mas Gading had recorded the highest price in Bidayuh’s dignity market. This is because SPDP had known the yellow gold secret at Tasik Biru that was enquired by Anwar Ibrahim. There was also foreign market in Serikin and a lot of Indonesian’s investor came there to buy yellow gold. Tiki had bid for the highest price based on Peter Timik’s advice. However, SPDP did not buy this expensive product because the price of indigenous dignity in Miri was cheaper. Sagan had bid for a lower price to Mawan and Mas Gading had to keep the expired stock.

This is the reality to be faced by indigenous groups under BN. Dignity being sold and the leaders laugh to their amusement. When asked, we were regarded as crab getting on top of other crabs. I believe the last GE had been influenced by money. Sources said that Bidayuh voters were given RM 100.00 and more at Mambong. There were friends who told me that it was useless to vote for the opposition because they did not give money. This is the value of our dignity, so cheap. If opposition were to give RM 100.10 to Bidayuh voters, I believe they will win it big. The opposition did not have enough money as they depend on people’s donation as what DAP did.

Our dignity has no different with the servants’ value that was sold in Pompei long time ago. We were traded by people who think that we are valuable for them. However, once they think that our market value had decreased, they will bring us back to the footway for bidding. SUPP stated that they had never reduced our dignity after rumors were spread that Richard try to sell Bidayuh to the opposition. SPDP got angry when Peter Timik tried to increase the price of Mas Gading’s people as other races have also gained their prices. Abang Johari quickly closed his shop before dusk. Cynically he said that if there are candidates from his group proposed by Pak Lah, this is a stock market increase for PBB. He agreed to sell Mambong at RM 1.99 by supporting whatever decision from Pak Lah.

Is it possible that our activists had got their incentives for being quiet after all three of our representatives were not selected in Parliament? Before GE, our activists had criticized the opposition 101% and declared war to them. They even gave us the confidence so that we would not fall into the opposition’s trap. Please read here.

Our activists have no longer strive for our fate but instead tried to fool us for their own interests. When disasters arise, then they will try to say that we are disappointed and dissatisfied for a one day period. After two to three days, they will become quiet because the father had hold rattan in his hand. This is the destiny of our activists that we worship and look to all this while.

I am not encouraging fellow readers to burn Serian, Padawan, and Bau District Council or Wisma Bapa Merdeka. It is also not my intention to set price for our dignity today. We realized that we had been auctioned by our leaders under BN wrecked umbrella. We are left out because our representatives are busy setting our dignity’s value every term. We should know that BN is only interested to us during election. We are treated like street’s prostitute. Used for one night and the next morning being sold to other places.

We must recognize that we had bright future if we were to reject corrupted and greedy leaders. It is useless for us to support this kind of leaders ever term and still get dusty and dangerous steep road. The hardcore poverty level under the NEP had taught us who are on the ‘Bumiputera’ benches. We lost 3 representatives in Parliament and were substitute by the inappropriate persons. Time to change is now or we had to choose to continue on whining and regretting the rest of our lives.