By Nancy Nais
KUCHING, Feb 5: Sarawak will benefit more from good governance and transparency than just devolution of power that its Gabungan Parti Sarawak-led state government is currently pursuing.
State Pakatan Harapan chairman Chong Chien Jen believed that good governance would bring more benefit for the rakyat when considering the current political scenario.
“Devolution of power means part of the power from the federal government will be given to the state. However, the power will be given to the elites of the state. How will the normal ordinary rakyat benefit from this?
“Therefore, in order to benefit the ordinary rakyat, good governance, transparency, no corruption and equitable policies are what we should be focusing on.
“We want the benefits to go to the rakyat, not the elites of the state,” Chong told reporters at the Democratic Action Party (DAP) Chinese New Year open house here today.
However, Chong, who is also the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs deputy minister, gave his assurance that the Pakatan government would continue with the devolution and decentralisation agenda for Sarawak.
“Pakatan government has set up the Special Cabinet and Technical Committee to study into all the aspects of the devolution of power for Sarawak. It shows the commitment of the federal government,” he said.
Chong added that all the wrongdoings such as erosion of power and exploitation on Sarawak were committed by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government for the past 55 years.
“We must right the wrong. However, to right the wrong doings that have been committed by BN for over 55 years is not an easy task. It has been there for so long,” Chong lamented. — DayakDaily
