By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Dec 11: Instead of “cancelling” the Pan Borneo Highway project as alleged, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had merely terminated the project delivery partner (PDP) and saved RM3 billion which was invested in another Trans Borneo Highway project.
This was explained by Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen in a press conference today, responding specifically to a statement by Senior Works Minister Dato Sri Fadillah Yusof yesterday (Dec 10) claiming many Sarawak development projects had been killed under PH’s administration.
Chong was firm to say that Fadillah’s claims were untrue as not only had development funds allocated for Sarawak not decreased, but it had in fact increased during PH’s regime.
“For the Pan Borneo Highway projects, what we (PH) terminated was the PDP or the so-called ‘middlemen’ getting the lion’s share of the projects while contractors do the job.
“By terminating the PDP, we even saved RM3 billion and with that we embarked on an additional highway for Sarawak which is the Trans Borneo Highway, somewhere in the northern Sarawak area.
“The saved amount was used not for the whole country, but specifically put into development in Sarawak. That’s what we did,” he said.
For the sake of the people, Chong added, PH also implemented more transparency and open tender processes during its 22-months in government.
In terms of the development budget, he said Sarawak was allocated RM4.5 billion out of total of RM70 billion development fund by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government for 2022, whereby the amount was exactly the same as that out of the RM56 billion by the then PH government.
“So, proportionately, Sarawak got a lot less during BN’s time,” said Chong, who is also DAP candidate for Padungan in the 12th Sarawak State Election. — DayakDaily
