KUCHING, May 12: Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Chong Chieng Jen claimed Sabah’s PH government under Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) has been administering the Land Below the Wind very well, much to the desire of its people, unlike the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government in Sarawak.
He said this was reflected when Democratic Action Party (DAP) candidate Vivian Wong won the Sandakan by-election yesterday with a whopping 11,531 majority, bigger than her late father Stephen Wong’s 10,098 majority in the 2018 general elections.
He said if it weren’t for the cold shoulder the GPS state government has been showing to the PH federal government, Sarawakians would be happier today just like the Sabahans.
“In short, the Sandakan people in particular and Sabahans in general, are happy with the good cooperation between the Warisan/PH state government working together with the federal PH government.
“Sabah’s politics is similar to Sarawak’s in that both do not have the 3R elements ie. Race, Religion and Royalty which have been fully manipulated by UMNO and PAS.
“In fact, for the past one year, with the good relationship between the federal and state governments in Sabah, much has been done to benefit the Sabahans.
“On the contrary, in Sarawak, with GPS constantly playing politics in all federal-state matters, a lot of good initiatives of the federal government were hampered. As a result, Sarawakians were denied many of the benefits of the federal government’s initiatives,” said Chong in a statement today.
He cited as an example the instance when the GPS MPs and state government rejected the proposed Article 1(2) of the Constitution amendment bill to restore Sabah and Sarawak to their original 1963 positions under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Another example Chong cited was the RM1 billion allocation from the state repayment of a federal loan for the repairs of the dilapidated schools in Sarawak which, he said, the state government insisted that the federal government should bypass the constitutional financial procedures.
“Again, such demand is unreasonable and will be unlawful if carried out by the federal government as so demanded.
“This just goes to show that for the benefit of the people of Sarawak, we need a state government which is willing to cooperate with the federal government, not a state government which at all times is looking for the opportunity to discredit and find fault with the federal government,” he said.
Chong claimed that the politicking of the GPS state government to serve their political interest and survival would only do more harm than good for the common people of Sarawak.
“We sincerely hope that, for the good of our future generations in Sarawak, the Warisan/PH’s strong showing in Sandakan will be replicated in the coming state election,” he said. — DayakDaily
