KUCHING, Nov 2: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government 2019 Budget is a populist announcement just like their election Manifesto.
Assistant Minister of Corporate Affairs Abdullah Saidol viewed the budget announcement as looking pretty on paper with its genuine implementation and result yet to be seen.
“As mentioned by the Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, the PH budget was structured based on Zero-based Budgeting.
“My understanding is that they announced their ‘wish list’ for the people but have no clue as to their own financial strength to fulfill those promises,” he said in a statement right after the budget announcement earlier this evening.
Asked on the development allocation for Sarawak, Abdullah said it was less than before and basically disappointing.
He said the PH government failed to address specifically the needs for rural development and uncertainty in term of deliveries.
“In a nutshell, I sense they (PH federal government) themselves were sceptical of their own budget when they talked too much about making too much allegations and excuses,” said Abdullah.
Lim earlier announced that Putrajaya would be allocating RM150 million to uniform prices of certain goods throughout the country including Sarawak and Sabah.
The goods are wheat flour, 1kg of refined sugar, 1kg of cooking oil, 10kg of 15% crushed local rice, RON95 petrol, diesel and liquified petroleum gas.
Lim also announced an allocation of RM100 million to rebuild dilapidated schools nationwide.
Apart from that, he also announced development allocation of RM4.346 billion for Sarawak, while assuring that the Pan Borneo Highway project would commence as usual.
At the same time, Lim said Putrajaya would continue to fund infrastructure development projects in the state including water, electricity, roads, health and education facilities and Sarawak’s economic corridor development. — DayakDaily
