Such is the imbalance of wealth and power in Sarawak that the outcome of the upcoming State Elections would seem to be little in doubt.

Careful gerrymandering of seats has further crafted the nominal nature of the state elections in favour of the ruling coalitions funded by extraction industries profiting from the native lands of the Dayak peoples.

Shortly into the campaign the ‘Caretaker Premier’ made a characteristic ‘Blue Sky Thinking’ pitch for the latest space age projects he would be excited to next invest public money into – none other than a RM300 million astronomy centre in Santubong to run Sarawak’s own satellite network by 2030!

It is Abang Jo’s election pitch to develop local expertise in space science and he is pouring money into numerous other ‘cutting edge’ projects promoted by foreign interests keen on easy investment pickings.

Meanwhile, the veteran native campaigner Willie Kajan is reminding GPS that without safe drinking water and decent access roads (let alone proper schools and health care), Sarawak’s would-be next generation of space scientists and inventors are being asked to run before they can walk.

For the last half century, he points out, basic amenities have been promised to the rural communities each and every time an election comes round, on the basis these will be provided within the next 5 year term.

The vast sums raised from logging, plantations, mining and oil production have always gone elsewhere instead.

In another hoary election promise GRS have yet again pledged to do something about the appalling state of the logging roads now abandoned by the wealthy timber companies who were allowed by them to desecrate the world’s oldest rainforest, leaving local peoples stranded.

After decades of neglect, 5,000km of these will now be restored to a usable state during the next 5 year term, GPS have assured voters. Kajan’s generation will well remember that, back in the day, the entire logging blitz was promoted on the grounds of  promised ‘development’, which included the pledge that the logging companies would fund viable roads as a public benefit from their profit-making business.

Now it is the public purse that is being saddled with the burden, allegedly, which will remove yet more potential funds from all the other basic infrastructure needs of the native people.

Sarawak is one of the richest corners of the earth with a tiny population, who ought to have been taken care of as its governing elite unleashed so many waves of  thoughtless, destructive and unsustainable resource grabs.

Instead, they have been abandoned to poverty: its seems deliberately so,  in order to keep them disempowered and from demanding their rights. The same elite have treated the public purse like a private plaything for pet projects in between jetting off to foreign parts and stashing their vast bounty abroad.

Now, a revered spokesman has called them to account and demanded their ‘Report Cards’ in full knowledge they would make shameful reading.

Sarawak’s native people have one chance to make their state government put them first and it comes with the ballot box next month.