Sarawakians have been reminded to learn lessons from the final five years of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration which showed the dangers of not having a check and balances in state governance.

Speaking in Bintulu last Sunday, Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said Mahathir's final years were filled with 'flawed legacies' which created problems for the current administration as well as for the people and future generations.

He urged Sarawakians to elect a strong DAP team to the next state assembly line-up as a 'check and balance' on the BN state government lead by Sarawak Chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud who has ruled for 25 years.

"The election of a strong DAP team in the Sarawak state assembly for the next five years is never more essential and critical to check abuses of power and protect the rights of the people in the final term of Taib Mahmud," he said.

Sarawak goes to the polls on May 20 with 71 seats to be contested. The opposition - including DAP - has vowed to put up a tough fight against the incumbent BN government.

In his speech, Lim claimed the most damaging legacy left by Mahathir was his 'unilateral, arbitrary and unconstitutional declaration on Sept 29, 2001 that Malaysia was an Islamic state.

He said this declaration had far reaching consequences which could be seen in the controversy over the late Muslim convert M Moorthy, the police force's decision to make head scarves compulsory as ceremonial attire for women personnel and proposed moral policing exercises.

Brute majority

He said Mahathir's administration had also caused unprecedented damage to the doctrine of separation of powers with the executive encroaching into the independent jurisdictions of Parliament and the judiciary.

Lim warned that if Sarawakians were not careful, they would soon see Taib leaving similar legacies as there were enough examples to show his 'arrogance of power and contempt for laws and democracy'.

Lim also cited the unfair treatment of DAP Kidurong state assemblyman Chiew Chin Sing who spoke up in the state assembly on the abusive treatment of sex workers from China known to locals as the 'China dolls controversy'.

Referring to the move to refer Chiew to the assembly's Committee of Privileges after threatening him with suspension and expulsion, Lim said the incident showed how the Sarawak BN flexed its muscles with a brute majority of 61 out of 62 seats in the assembly.

He said that it was obvious that BN leaders wanted to muzzle Chiew and prevent him from raising the people's concerns and grievances in the state assembly. As a result, he added, the China Dolls' controversy was never investigated.

"The state BN is guilty on two counts. One of gross abuse of their 61-seat dominance in the 62-seat state assembly by bullying and shutting up Chew from raising the controversy although they knew that Chiew was speaking the truth.

"The second is gross abuse of the Privileges Committee, as this must be the only instance in any legislature in Malaysia and the world where a case had been referred to the Privileges Committee just for the purpose of shutting up the opposition from voicing out on a serious public scandal."

Go unpunished

Lim also said the recent special session of the Sarawak state assembly on the Ninth Malaysia Plan on April 20 was an abuse of power on the part of the BN.

"The session was not only most unprecedented and unparliamentary but was very wrong as it wasted public funds and resources in convening all assembly members to a special session purely for the chief minister to conduct a public relations spectacle, with no role by the assembly members to debate the plan," he said.

Lim said without a strong opposition in the state assembly, such misconducts by the BN would continue to go unpunished.

In the 2001 state elections, the BN won all but two of the 62 seats, losing Kidurong to DAP's Chiew and Meluan to Wong Judat, an independent. Wong later crossed over to the BN.