Ibans storm SUPP office asking for ‘election reward’

Sibu Election Watch (SEW) in a press statement released late yesterday evening said the Ibans were upset that they did not get the “balance”, despite being promised the money by SUPP election agents as well as the tuai rumah (longhouse head) before the April 16 polls.

The incident was first reported by the web portal Sarawak Indigenous Community Newsand tweeted by DAP Sarawak chairman and Bukit Assek assemblyperson Wong Ho Leng (left), who was present at the site yesterday.

Soon after the news broke out, SEW sent two representatives to the Sibu SUPP headquarters to check out the situation.

Its probe, SEW said, showed that the Ibans were promised an upfront payment of RM100 before voting day. If the SUPP candidate won, they would each be paid another RM400 after the election.

SEW said its representatives had witnessed Ibans from at least two longhouses being paid the “balance” of RM400 each.

The election watch said the Ibans were from Rumah Chandi, Rumah Pasang and Rumah Ujang.

“One of the residents from Rumah Chandi even distributed a stack of RM100 bills to the longhouse folk holding their identity cards in front of us,” SEW said.

Quarrel with tuai rumah

SEW said it interviewed one Iban voter from Rumah Ujang, who revealed that the Iban folk had quarrelled with their tuai rumahafter not getting their RM400 even a week after polling day.

“However, the tuai rumah hit back, saying that some people had voted for DAP and did not deserve to get the RM400 balance,” said the young voter quoted by SEW.

He blamed the tuai rumah for being unfair, since the BN had no way of proving which person did not vote for BN.

SEW said another Iban, who only wanted to be known as Robin, gave them a letter and expressed the residents’ anger with their tuai rumah, Mador Anak Rendah.