Smuggling of gas cylinder

Main headline of Borneo Post July 5, 2011 @ Tuesday, read “Smuggling root cause of shortage”. The report was refering to the shortage of gas cylinder in the state of Sarawak. Minister of Land Development, Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing said he based his suspicion on recent Indonesian news report. One of the newspaper carried a headline, ’Warga Perbatasan Pilih tabung Gas Malaysia” The cause of the shortage brought much problems and a consumer has no choice but to pay more in the black market.

Dr James put it as “his suspicion” and the paper quoted it as ‘might have been smuggled”, which to me is very funny. As a layman, I am never at all suspicious that the subject-matter has been smuggled. Sometimes in March 2010, I was at Tebedu Custom checkpoint and saw a pick-up loaded with goods without declaration or checking by the custom officer. The driver did stop and handed the officer a piece of paper and drove off to the other side.

Out of curiosity, I asked the officer about the subject-matter and the reply was: Gula! Although I did not ask further, he continued to say ‘Diorang ini ada lesen’. On my way to Sintang, I keep on wondering about the ‘license to export subsidised sugar to Indonesia’.

Upon reaching Sanggau Town, we ate at one of the moderate restaurant in front of the hospital. Suspecting we were Malaysian, the operator, an ‘ibu’ around the age of 40 spoke to us fondly of Malaysia especially about the cleanliness of Kuching City. When enquired where they source the sugar , he reply was, ‘Ibu ngak pernah beli gula Indonesia, gula dari Mala(y)sia lebih murah dan senang bangat dapat!” was the reply.

Prior to reaching Sanggau, we stopped at Balai Karangan for food at one of the restaurant near a bank. And there was a Malaysian truck full of Shell gas cylinder parked just across where we enjoy our food.

Why our border is so porous? These two items were heavily subsidized by the government for the Malaysian and yet the local consumers deprived of the items. I struggle to understand the effectiveness of our enforcement as we have enough rules and regulations to stop all these spillage.

At the end, I said to my self, if the government has no answer, the opposition must have solution.