KUCHING: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) youth chief Tan Kai has his head in the sand as far as Democratic Action Party (DAP) is concerned.
DAP Kuching publicity secretary Bernard Chin said Tan’s recent statement about Stampin voters being shortchanged by their current MP Julian Tan who is from DAP shows that Tan Kai does not understand SUPP’s role in the ruling government and that Tan Kai thinks the general public are ignorant of SUPP’s publicity stunts.
“For him to ask Julian Tan to bring development to Stampin, he should first ask himself who is the ruling government and how much has the ruling government allocated from its federal fund to Stampin constituency. It just shows how oblivious he is towards the role of a parliamentarian.
“Let me clarify for him, as an opposition MP, Julian brings issues affecting his constituents and stand against any policies and legislations which is against the interest of the people. He scrutinises the actions of the government and government departments, he asks questions, debates and seeks to address any constituent’s concern. He speaks in support of, or in opposition to, a piece of legislation.”
In a press statement, Chin questioned why SUPP as a component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government did not object to the GST Bill when it was first tabled and then implemented. He implied that SUPP has not spoken up for the interests of the people despite claiming to do so.
“BN is the ruling government who holds the power to the legislative and executive power in the government; shouldn’t he then ask federal BN, his party, why had they not allocated funds for the development of Stampin constituency for the past 5 years? Do not shift the blame to the opposition when BN fails as the ruling government to bring development to Stampin constituency.”
Chin also questioned what is SUPP’s role in BN.
“Tan Kai is clearly ignorant or pretends to be ignorant in order to curry favour from his bosses while continuing the so-called SUPP publicity stunts by portraying they are championing the people’s interest when obviously they fail as the ruling government.”
Meanwhile, Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) youth chief Rapelson Richard Hamit also took aim at Tan Kai in a press statement, calling the latter an ‘unmatured politician’ in response to remarks allegedly made by Tan Kai calling on Sarawakians to vote for local political parties and to not be influenced by comments on social media, such as those alleging Malaysia is going bankrupt.
“Tan Kai and SUPP are opportunists by taking advantage on the ‘Go Local’ sentiment. The phenomenon was created by PBDSB,” said Rapelson, who claimed SUPP intended to confuse Sarawakians and give the perception that PBDSB is a BN-friendly party.
Rapelson also said that Sarawak as part of the Federation of Malaysia would be affected by every policy implemented by the Federal Cabinet such as GST which burdened the people.
“The six per cent GST collected is to increase the revenue of the nation. That is the purpose of this GST implementation. If this nation is in good economic shape, what is the need to implement GST?
“Thus, (the sentiment) Malaysia is going to be a bankrupt state is not propaganda; it is just a matter of time and it is due to the incompetence of the BN government managing its economy. With this, I challenge Tan Kai, to prove that the Malaysian economy is good. It would be better if he could give us the statistical data of Malaysia’s debt,” Rapelson said.
He also demanded that Tan Kai explained the inconsistency of fuel prices for RON95, RON97 and diesel, adding that explanations were much appreciated rather than just empty talk.
“Tan Kai had better explain rather than instruct the public not to trust social media news. I’m more than happy if he could explain the import and export, and economic circle [sic] of rural commodities,” Rapelson said.
On another matter, PBDSB said they would not be making any alliances with both BN and PH. However, according to Rapelson, the party leadership will cooperate with PH with the main objective of changing the government of the day.
