Adenan: No let-up in enforcement

KUCHING: There will be no let-up in enforcement now that a crackdown on illegal activities has begun, Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem said.

“At the end of the day, the buck stops with me,” he said.

“I don’t want any of this ‘passing the buck’ around (between enforcement agencies); that (enforcement) is not our job, it’s your job.

“I cannot pass the buck, I have no ‘upstairs’. So, no more excuses,” he said at the Sarawak Civil Service Day celebrations here yesterday.

He said he would not accept the lack of manpower as an excuse for criminal activities to continue.

“I’ll give you an example of good management. I give someone a fish, say a terubok. If I give it to cultured people, they can make so many dishes out of this fish, but if I give it to savages, all they can make is two or three dishes: fried, grilled or smoked.

“But it’s the same fish. It’s a reflection of civilisation. It’s about what you can do with the least,” he said.

He said the crackdown on illegal logging and cyber gambling would be long-lasting and that he would be persistent in demanding results from enforcement agencies.

“I must congratulate police for cleaning up Kuching from cyber gambling. They have taken the first step. Throughout Sarawak, we’re going to clean up this mess. We’ll lock them (criminals) up and lock their shops up.

“I know if you raid here today, tomorrow they’ll go elsewhere. If they spread from the city to the suburbs, we’ll arrest them there too.”

He said the state civil service had made big improvements but there were “failures” on enforcement.

On illegal logging in national parks, he said: “It is an admission of our weakness that some of you are not 100% honest.

“Some of you chose to collaborate with people who rape our forests. You chose to ignore their actions, pretend you didn’t know. So I have to admit that in our efforts to pursue excellence, we have quite failed in this area. Now, we have to rectify it.”

Earlier, Adenan witnessed the signing of integrity pledges by State Secretary Tan Sri Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani and Sarawak Federal Secretary Datuk Md Yahaya Basimin.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Deputy Police Commissioner Datuk Dr Chai Khin Chung said yesterday the estimated value of seized logs so far this year was double that of last year.

“Last year, the police had 22 cases of seized illegal logs with a total estimated value of RM8.3mil. In the first 11 months of this year, we have had 33 cases valued at RM15mil,” he said.

He said enforcement action by the marine police would be stepped up.

“We are going to increase enforcement day and night on land and rivers,” he added.

He also said that all known cyber gambling premises in the city centre had been closed.