By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Nov 26: Assistant Minister of Corporate Affairs Abdullah Saidol says Sarawakians despise and will reject the ‘ugly’ political culture that has been adopted by Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) from the peninsula.
Abdullah, who is Semop assemblyman, believed Sarawakians would not fall for Sarawak PH, who he said is only interested to win the next state election instead of serving the people.
“And not to forget about all the comical and haywire policies introduced by those PH ministers. Do all Sarawakians truly believe that our fate will be in the good hands of all PH leaders in West Malaysia?
“With those basic scenarios, do Sarawakians desperately need PH leaders from West Malaysia to assist and dictate us in managing our state affairs?” he asked in a statement today.
Abdullah said with the general election over six months ago and the state polls due in 2021, he believed PH would be busy playing politics instead of working for the people.
“Sarawak PH politicians are always occupied with strategies for the next state election, which is probably three years from now.
“Sarawakians will notice that while Chong (state PH chairman Chong Chieng Jen) and PH Sarawak are busy attacking with their political rhetoric, GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) will full heartedly concentrate and ‘counter strike’ with people-centric deliveries and services,” he said.
He noted that after the May 9 general election, PH leaders had been churning out excuse after excuse for being unable to fulfil their election promises but still talked about promoting ‘Malaysia Baru’ without shame.
“PH Minister of Finance introduced a federal budget that was no different from past federal budgets but with many things taken away from Sarawak.
“Among those missing from the PH federal budget are a special grant of no less than RM30 million per annum for the purpose of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land perimeter survey.
“Where is the RM1 billion federal allocation for dilapidated schools for Sarawak? Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government has offered to lend the Ministry of Education RM1 billion, but there is no convincing response from the federal side,” he said.
Abdullah added that during the time of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, the Works Ministry were allocated RM820 million for road maintenance, but Selangau MP Baru Bian, who is the Works Minister, recently admitted that for 2019, only RM100 million were allocated for his ministry by the Finance Ministry.
“The federal budget only allocated RM4.3 billion for Sarawak, which is only 7.9 per cent of the total development budget. The federal budget introduced by the PH administration does not reflect a fair and equitable allocation to Sarawak despite the promise made by State PH,” he said.
He said in contrast, the GPS government introduced a record-breaking surplus budget of RM11.9 billion, and RM9.1 billion are specifically for infrastructural development.
“Sarawakians should take note that out of the RM9.1 billion for development, 67 per cent, equivalent to RM6 billion, is for rural development.
“Sarawak GPS government also announced an estimated total revenue of RM10.5 billion and a total proposed ordinary expenditure of RM10.3 billion. It is expected to generate a surplus of RM122 million.”
“Most importantly what needs to be noted by all Sarawakians is that the GPS state government is not utilising any from its healthy reserves of more or less RM30 billion,” said Abdullah.
He said this proved that not only the Sarawak govt had been prudent in managing state funds but also knew how to generate extra revenue for the state.
“Did you see any of our leaders in GPS busy making all sorts of excuses for not wanting to deliver and provide for the people of Sarawak?
“All you hear from GPS is the enthusiasm of wanting to see our state prosper in all aspects and unshaken courage to protect Sarawak’s rights and interest,” he said — DayakDaily
