By Lian Cheng
BINTULU, Oct 28: The degrading curses hurled at his late mother was the last straw for incumbent Bintulu MP Dato Sri Tiong King Sing when dealing with a female resident at Kampung Pisang of Kidurong, apart from the resident’s outrageous demand of RM1 million in compensation for every single palm tree she had planted on adjacent state land.
After 23 years in politics, this is the only incident that Tiong still looks back on with much disappointment and regret. He said that was the first time ever since he became a politician that he lost his temper and berated a Bintulu resident.
The incident occurred in June 2020. However, it had left such an impression on him that it still bothers him to this day, especially now that the video of him rebuking the woman has again gone viral, which he suspects is due to the 15th General Election (GE15) which polls on Nov 19.
It all started when flooding became frequent at Kampung Pisang of Kidurong. To solve the issue, the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) decided to expand the drainage system of the village which involved taking back its land, which happened to be adjacent to the woman’s house.
The woman, according to the Dudong assemblyman, had planted trees and crops on the drainage reserve land, which prevented the DID project from being carried out.
“Actually the land belongs to DID reserve, but they (the woman and her family) said, if you want, for one palm tree planted, we must give them RM1 million.
“We counted (there), I think (there were) more than 10 palm trees. Meaning the government needed to pay RM10 million. But the land is the reserve land of the government.
He said prior to him, the district officer (DO), DID officers and his party political chief had all failed to get their message across while the DO got the worst treatment of all as the woman hurled curses and refused to be reasoned with.
So when he was informed, he tried his best to settle the issue.
“(I tried) to talk to her but she refused. Then she came out, and scolded the government and this and that, and towards the end of the day, even my mother who had already passed away, she still wanted to scold (curse) my mother’s private part for giving birth to me. That was why I got angry and told her off,” Tiong told DayakDaily in an exclusive interview at Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) Bintulu service centre today.
He said the woman had come out to meet them holding a cleaver and even threatened them with it.
On the current viral video which was widely circulated during June 2020, Tiong said it was a heavily edited one which does not reflect the real situation.
“My mother passed away at 100-years-old. She did not deserve this type of remark made by such a person, as my mother was a very kind and humble person.
“Why, as she has now been laid to rest, should she be condemned by that woman,” said Tiong, who also claimed that the woman had been cast out by her longhouse folk in Suai, Niah following numerous quarrels and disagreements.
“So this is what I want to tell the people, our people on the ground, that we must be cooperative, (be prepared with a) negotiable mindset, and not to be stubborn,” said Tiong.
Tiong expressed disappointment, saying he could talked to the longhouse folk involving a murder case arising from land dispute in Niah 20 years ago, despite the initial aggression shown by the longhouse, he could not talk sense into the woman with cleaver.
He pointed out that that there will always be demands that he could not meet and he appealed for understanding from the public that all requests made should be reasonable where negotiation should be conducted with courtesy. — DayakDaily
