Elected rights activist swings into action

After being elected in the Batu Lintang constituency in the April 16 state elections, human rights activist See Chee How immediately swung into action, attending to the numerous complaints submitted to him during the campaign period.

They include clogged drainage, unsatisfactory government service and hawkers’ problems not being attended to by local authorities.

See (left) is known for his involvement in human rights activities, especially in speaking against the alleged suppression and oppression of the semi-nomadic Penan communities.

Once it was exposed that some Penan women and schoolgirls had been allegedly raped by logging companies workers in the Baram interior, he and other human rights activists called on the police to take swift action against the culprits.

They also went to Baram to lend support to the Penan community.

See and Sarawak PKR liaison chief Baru Bian, who was elected in Ba’Kelalan in the just-concluded state election, are in the forefront of defending the native customary rights (NCR) of landowners.

They have filed about 150 cases involving NCR lands with the courts, and they have won many of the cases which have been disposed off .

When asked, a political aide said people, especially government officials, should not play around with See.

Yesterday morning he went to inspect the Sungai Maong wet market at Jalan Sungai Maong, after receiving numerous complaints from the market traders.

He was accompanied by three senior officers from the Kuching North City Council (DBKU), including the head of the building maintenance division, Faisal Adenan.

The no-nonsense activist, who was once detained by the Burmese military junta for protesting against the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the 1980s, had called the DBKU yesterday on their lack of action on the market traders complaints.

“They (officials) passed my call from one person to another until I told them, ‘look if you don’t want to attend to the complaints, I am going to blow it up in the press’, and it worked.

“An official agreed to meet me at the market,” he said.

The market traders's complains included clogged drains, filthy floors, blocked ground pipes as well as dirty toilets.

“I am very pleased that DBKU has given its cooperation in providing service to the people,” See said after inspecting the wet market.

“I hope that other government departments and agencies can extend the same kind of cooperation to us from the opposition,” he said.

He added that these departments and agencies ought to understand that he could be quite outspoken on issues that had remained unresolved or not given attention.

‘Contractor not discharging duties well’

Faisal, who understood what See was telling him, said: “We have been acting on the complaints of the traders at the market.”

He said he had personally given a warning to the private contractor charged with maintaining the market clean.

“We have been informed by the market traders that this contractor had not been discharging his responsibility well.

“We asked him why and his explanation was that he lacked the manpower to take care of the market,” Faisal said.

He said he had warned the contractor not to repeat the mistake, otherwise DBKU would not hesitate to terminate his contract.

Faisal said complaints against the contractor started to pour in early this year.

He also called on the traders to extend their cooperation by not indiscriminately throwing their rubbish or throwing leftovers into  wash basins.

He said the ground pipes were often clogged by the leftover food washed down from the wash basins.

“All must cooperate to make this wet market a pleasant place to go to,” he added.