CAKAP CAKAP : PAHANG

My late father was born in Pekan. As a Police Officer, he served in Kuala Lipis and Kuantan. I am familiar with the Tembeling River in Kuala Lipis where many happy hours were spent on the river with my father when we were staying in Kuala Lipis in one of the government quarters up on the hill behind the Rest House.

I did my HSC in SABS Kuantan and life in the school hostel and later at home when my family moved to Kuantan, were the last carefree years of my life. Again many happy hours were spent on the Sungai Kuantan passing through the town, and on the beach close to where we stayed. Apart from those good times that stayed, to this day, in my mind.... a few other things stayed in my mind when I think of Pahang.

THE KERABAT di RAJA. THE BUYING AND SELLING OF STATE AWARDS FOR PROFIT. AND BALAK.

The Royals of Pahang, if I am to be polite, are of easy virtue. Some would say sinful, X-rated, debauched, lewd, licentious, loose, highly sexed, but I will say that they are of easy virtue. Simply said, they, from the Sultan down, will chase anything in a skirt.

As for the buying (by the recipients) and the selling (by the Kerabat di Raja) of State awards.... long before the other Royal Houses in the other states cotton on to this lucrative sideline business for the Royals, the Kerabat di Raja of Pahang had already got it down to a fine art form. Anyone, from a Chicken Seller to a Gangster to a Diplomat could be the recipient of a State Award if the price is right!

Long story short, a Pahang State Award (except for rare exceptions) are not worth the material, brass or metal they are forged on. Zilch. Zero. When someone is introduced as a Dato from Pahang, more often than not, you give each other a wink and a nudge nudge behind their back.

As for Balak, huh what is there to say about Pahang Royals and Balak?

For some officers in PDRM, bribes and prostitution can be an income source. For some wives of prime minister, commissions from grateful businessmen is a way of life. For the Pahang Royals, Balak is the ‘go to’ staple when funds are needed for their life of polo horse, women and a lifestyle lived far far beyond their means. Today there are government projects, vaccines contracts. Musang King and various other income source, but Balak has been there for the MB, politicians and the Royals to exploit for their own financial gains.

The sum of all those decades of legal and illegal loggings yang tak dapat di kawal can be seen in the devastations and mayhem wreck upon the State of Pahang and its people in the recent floods - proof of which can be clearly seen on the multitudes of photographs, videos and personal hardship and tragic stories of the people of Pahang who has lost their homes and everything else because of the havoc caused by the floods that brought those Balaks directly into their lives and destroying their properties and everything else, in these past few weeks.

Whether the Menteri Besar, the Pengarah Jabatan Perhutanaan Negri Pahang , the relevant state and federal government authorities or the Royals, are ever to be held responsible for the damage cased by the Balak is moot. Nasi sudah menjadi bubur. Lesson of the past many decades has not been learned and you will be a fool to think that the devastation of the recent floods will do anything to change things in Pahang.

There will be formal inquiries initiated and reports submitted by the relevant authorities. Promise of “never again” will be made. And of course compensation and help may be extended to those affected by the floods and the runaway Balak. The Sultan will make the obligatory “lessons learned and never again will such sufferings be inflicted upon the rakyat’ speech… and soon when the rain abates and time passes….nothing will happen.

There is just too much money to be made by too many ‘important and politically powerful royals and people for this legal and illegal Balak business to stop or be regulated in a responsible and sustainable manner.

And so by time of the floods next year…. history will repeat itself. Enough said.

DAULAT TUANKU? I THINK NOT !!!

Hussein Hamid

10th January 2022

Melbourne.