Fair land Sarawak

I refer to the letter by a 'Patriot' entitled "Guerillas Will Never Give Up" in Salient No. 7 where in comments were made on the situation in Sarawak.

Malaysia, of which Sarawak is a component state, is a developing country. In the eyes of 'Patriot', the people of Sarawak are "the victims of unemployment, inflation and soaring prices of commodities". But he fails to see that even in a developed country like NZ, similar situations are evident if not more acute than in Sarawak where there are no shortages of sugar, petrol, electricity and toilet seats! It is difficult to understand the statement that "wide rural areas are plunged into bankruptcy and the livelihood of the peasants is poor and miserable". The wide rural areas are full of potentials like timber and other forest produce which only need to be developed. But then development is hindered by the threat posed by the guerillas who are [unclear: nore] terrorists than freedom fighters. The only people who can be said to be bankrupt are the guerillas who face bankruptcy in ideas and support. That the peasants are poor and miserbale is true only to the extent that this situation is brought about by the terrorist threat which forces them to stay indoors while curfews are imposed to facilitate Government mop-up operations.

Social justice and progress is a matter of degree and the Sarawak Government has taken another step forward by having reached amnesty with some of the guerillas. With peace comes prosperity. It is the remainder in the jungle who try to sabotage the state's achievements in the fields of social justice and progress.

The failure of the Indonesian Communist Party in the Parliamentary contest and the similar failure in Chile serves to show that such groups do not have the majority's support. While others achieve Parliamentary victory, the Communists face failure. To 'Patriot' and his likes, the only solution is to force their minority view by armed revolution. And so they did in Chile recently and Indonesia some years ago. Did the revolutionaries attain social justice? Instead they found one hard fact: united they fall in arms. Disasters in both Parliamentary contests and armed struggles lead me to the conclusion that the Communists and armed revolutionaries have no place in Sarawak if not in most developing countries.

"Guerillas will never give up". Sure enough, for by definition if they did they aren't guerillas anymore. Treat Bongo's surrender as a "betrayal" to the people of Sarawak if he likes. As a Sarawakian, I would really welcome such so-called "betrayal" for it means one thing: there will be no guerillas and the people of Sarawak can look forward to an era of peace and progress.