KUCHING, Oct 14: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) leaders should not overreact to the RM32 million special grant in the 2020 budget as announced by the Minister of Finance recently.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak information chief Desmond Kho said that this additional special grant falls under Article 112C and 112D of the Federal Constitution which was not reviewed under the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration since 1969 until the increment was announced by Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng in his budget 2020 speech.
“In the 2020 budget announcement, the minister said that Sarawak will be specially paid an additional RM32 million which comes under the provisions of the constitution that falls under the heading of the “Special grants and assignments of revenue to States of Sabah and Sarawak” and this special grant represent special and additional payments to Sabah and Sarawak,” according to Kho in the statement.
He added: “The Minister of Finance had also revealed that Sarawak was only paid RM16 million all those years during the Barisan Nasional (BN) government(‘s time) and such payment was never reviewed.”
Kho opined that GPS politicians should not have described the special grant which is going to be paid to Sarawak as ‘very little’ since the special grant is now being increased.
He questioned why GPS politicians never questioned the previous BN government about the RM16 million to Sarawak over the years and why the grant had not been reviewed nor increased since 1969.
Kho opined that GPS politicians could not say that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government is playing them out now because of this matter.
He was also wondering, despite the increment in the special grants, why GPS politicians appeared still eager to debate the matter in Parliament
Kho disclosed that they (GPS politicians) could have easily made changes before as most of them were members of the cabinet in the previous BN federal government.
He opined that instead, the positive initiatives by PH now should be cherished by all Sarawakians.
It was reported by Free Malaysia Today two days ago that certain Sarawak political party leaders indicated that the RM32 million special grant to Sarawak is mediocre and Batang Sadong MP Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri indicated that there was no proper review under Article 112D of the Federal Constitution as agreed upon by the Malaysia Agreement 1963 Steering Committee. — DayakDaily
