Tan Sri William Mawan
KUCHING (Dec 21): The stalled Rumah Dayak project should not be used by the Dayaks to pit against each other every time the election is around the corner as it would not benefit anybody, said Sarawak Dayak National Union (SDNU) president Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom.
“As far as I can remember, the project has never provided political gain or sympathy towards those who tried to politicise it,” the Pakan assemblyman said when met today.
He also said that it would be unfair for critics to blame Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) leaders especially Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg and his deputies Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing for the issue.
Mawan said he also told the SDNU supreme executive committee (SEC) members the same thing when asked on the matter during a meeting yesterday.
The project, developed by Canjaya Sdn Bhd in which SDNU holds 20 per cent of shares, sits on SDNU’s land at Jalan Satok.
Mawan said the project has been stalled for 23 years due to “economic reasons”, adding that the current SDNU SEC led by him inherited the issues surrounding the Rumah Dayak project from the SEC in 1997 and subsequent ones.
He said the current SEC had done something positive towards the project which included pushing the developer Canjaya to hasten the pace in getting the occupational permit (OP) for the shop block from the Kuching North City Commission (DBKU).
Besides that, he said SDNU in 2018 had also transferred its 20 per cent equity in a tower block to the adjoining shop block (or four-storey seven shop lots).
Mawan said this move made sense to SDNU as the shop block was already completed despite the pending OP from DBKU.
The tower block, which is part of the project has become an eye sore and capitalised by the opposition from time to time to symbolically portray the failure of the government of the day and Dayak leaders to assist the people.
While the structural aspect of the four-storey seven shop lots is completed, Mawan said SDNU may now need to ask the developer to clear the eye sore at the tower block site by leveling the ground so that critics would stop capitalising on the issue.
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