KUCHING, Nov 7: “As warned, PN (Perikatan Nasional) is slowly bringing Malaysia back to the dark ages,” says Sarawak Democractic Action Party (DAP) chairman’s special assistant Michael Kong.
He said with the PN government neglecting Chinese schools in the recent Budget 2021, it would be of expectance if the government does not recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) and maybe even close vernacular schools in the future.
“When the current PN government refuse to give any sort of funding to the Chinese schools (in Budget 2021), can we really expect them to recognise UEC in the near future?
“This may be the first step towards the wishes of a PN deputy minister, which is to close vernacular schools,” he asserted.
Believing that Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) has failed and disappointed Sarawak by not fighting for more annual budget allocation for the state, Kong opined that PN plus GPS government has forsaken Sarawak after securing the throne.
He also said the percentage of allocation for Sarawak in Budget 2019 when Pakatan Harapan (PH) was governing the nation was higher than that in Budget 2021.
“Budget 2019, approximately 17 percent of the total RM56 billion of development expenditure was allocated to Sabah (RM5.2 billion) and Sarawak (RM4.4 billion).
“However, in the proposed Budget 2021, the PN federal government is only allocating about 14 percent of RM69 billion of development expenditure to East Malaysia.
“This clearly shows that it is the PN plus GPS government that has forsaken Sarawak after they have ascended the throne,” he said.
In Budget 2021 which was tabled by Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz in Parliament yesterday (Nov 6), Sarawak was allocated a total of RM4.5 billion for development expenditure.
Kong said there has only been a mere 2.27 percent increase in the allocation since 2019 and that pales in comparison with the increase of 40 percent when PH first took over the federal government in 2018.-DayakDaily
