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KUCHING: The allegation by Sarawak opposition leader Chong Chieng Jen that Sarawak government is keeping the RM31-billion reserve because it does not care about the people has been dismissed as baseless.
Chong, who is also Democratic Action Party (DAP) state chairman, Stampin MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, has also been described as a politician who is only looking for political mileage by making baseless allegations against Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) information chief Dato Idris Buang made the remarks when reacting to Chong’s latest political rhetoric in the media.
Instead of trying to be cunning, Chong being a fellow Sarawakian should have sincerely admitted that the Sarawak government has been taking care of the welfare of the people, particularly the rural folks all this while, said Idris.
“The Sarawak government has brought about changes and development to the state. And there is so much more that we want to achieve or continue to do. The population is forever increasing and therefore their demands are now in various forms. The overall development – human and infrastructural – is at a satisfactory level,” he said.
“For Chong to dismiss the pace of development in rural Sarawak is unfair. You can see for yourselves the roads that link remote villages,” he said.
People should realise that roads, bridges, schools, education, hospitals, village clinics and health are under the purview of the federal government as spelt out in the Malaysian Constitution but since the Pakatan Harapan (PH) took over federal government from the Barisan Nasional (BN), many approved smaller projects that were supposed to benefit the people of Sarawak had been stopped by PH, said Idris.
“And because the PH government is selfish, the GPS government has to fork out allocations from the state reserve to finance some of these projects,” he argued.
“These (the projects cancelled by PH) are in fact projects to repair dilapidated school buildings, and drainage system, build bridges and to provide water and electrical supplies to the rural areas.
“And because of its (PH) inefficiency, the PH government failed to continue these projects – which the Sarawak government had duly approved,” he stressed.
Idris urged Chong to stop making excuses for PH’s inefficiency as these would not be helpful to anyone.
He said people including Chong should realise that the previous BN government had accumulated and left more than RM400 billion for PH to run the country smoothly.
“With that amount of fund accumulated and left by the BN, there should be no reason why the projects are stopped,” Idris contended.
With the money, that should be more reason for Chong not to run away from their responsibility in administering development particularly fighting for Sarawak’s 20 per cent oil royalty and lessening the impact on people due to the reintroduction of the Sales and Services Tax (SST) and the decrease in oil palm and rubber prices.
Idris said the Sarawak government has been transparent and prudent in managing the state reserve of RM31 billion which it accumulated since the era of former Chief Minister Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.
Even the professional global rating body Standard and Poor in 2017 recognised the management of Sarawak Finance as of high standard, he said, adding that the state government will use good governance, the Oil Mining Ordinance and quality natural resources management efficiently to improve its income for the sake of the people.
Idris said around RM2 billion had been spent to connect villages with water supply and electricity from the main grid.
The Sarawak Energy Berhad’s (SEB) Sarawak Rural Electrification System (Sares) project using the solar system for longhouses in the remote areas is on-going and the state has already spent about RM140 million on it.
However, the federal government was supposed to match the amount but not a single sen has been disbursed by PH, he said.
“I urge Chong to get briefing from the apolitical State Planning Unit (SPU) before making wild assumptions. All we need from him is to be fair in his assessment otherwise he is just out to incite hatred,” he said.
“Therefore for Chong to say that the Sarawak government has failed to look after the welfare of the people is just a wild allegation and is baseless. So stop playing politics and being hostile,” he said while asking Chong to be a more dynamic federal Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs.
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