KUCHING, May 7: Despite numerous demands from Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen, Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian has still failed to provide the list of recipient associations and their respective amounts of contributions received out of Dr Sim’s RM9 million allocation from the state government.
Chong said Dr Sim recently in a press conference only provided the RM9 million amount given to some 1,800 associations and non-governmental organisation last year, but did not give the full list and respective amounts.
“I have made this demand many months ago and also a few days ago. In his press conference recently he said about RM9 million have been given to about 1,800 associations. That is not a detailed list as we all know the saying goes, the devil is in the details. What we want is a list of recipients and respective sums,” Chong told a press conference at DAP headquarters here this afternoon, alleging the disbursement has not been transparent.
Chong claimed that the RM9 million allocation for 2017 was only for a regular Barisan Nasional (BN) assemblyman, not taking into consideration a minister’s allocation which he said was a lot more.
Chong said Dr Sim has not given any explanation on the accounts, and being a senator, Dr Sim would have other source of allocation be given out.
“So up until yesterday, despite calling for a press conference, he still failed to give proper account of where the money gone to,” he said.
On a related issue, Chong, who is also DAP candidate for Stampin, said that the 257 acres of land opposite MJC Batu Kawah has been left idle for quite a while since he brought up the issue where it was sold by the state government to a private company for a cheap price.
He brought up the issue back during the 2016 state election, claiming that there were some discrepancies in that land acquisition, which could be from the corrupt and illegal transactions between the state government and the private company.
“I have raised this issue before the state election but till now all the clearing works there have been postponed or suspended. Documentation wise it is still under that private company (Standard Parade Development Sdn Bhd).
“Our pledge here is, if we capture Putrajaya in this election (GE14) we will direct the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate this transaction. We will take back the land because land taken or acquired through illegal or corrupt practice can be confiscated.
“Any properties that have been acquired in an illegal manner or corrupt manner can be confiscated under the law. Our investigation will be done with the view to confiscate land and thereafter to carry out projects that are beneficial to the general public, for instance building schools and colleges, sports facilities, recreational parks and some medium or low cost houses,” Chong pledged. — DayakDaily
