KUCHING, Nov 1: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) elected state representatives (ADUNs) will not attend the “Program Amanat Integriti Bersama YAB Ketua Menteri” tomorrow, alleging the event is nothing but a mere public relations (PR) exercise by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government which has not the slightest intent to adopt the practice of good governance and integrity.
According to a press statement from state PH chairman Chong Chieng Jen today, an example of the BN government’s non-integrity policy is holding the people to ransom over the allocation of Minor Rural Project (MRP) funds and the non-transparent application of the said MRP funds.
“MRP funds are funds from the people and for the people. However, the BN government takes pride in threatening those voters who vote for the opposition by depriving them of the benefit of the MRP fund.
“It is the basic principle of democracy that people are free to vote for any party of their choice and that the government of the day must not penalise anyone for voting for the opposition. Otherwise, we might as well not have elections.
“The Sarawak BN government has not the slightest respect for the basic principle of democracy. As such, it has lost all moral standing to talk about ‘integrity’.”
Chong claimed the BN government not only defies the basic principle of democracy by wrongfully denying the rights of the people in opposition-held constituencies to MRP funds, but the BN government has also failed to be accountable to the application of such MRP funds by the BN ADUNs and ministers.
“The application of such funds by the BN ADUNs is not subject to the scrutiny of DUN (State Legislative Assembly) Sarawak. Take for example, SUPP Minister, (Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Dr) Sim Kui Hian, claimed to have a RM9 million MRP fund for the year 2016. How much of the money was actually disbursed to the NGOs? How much of it has gone to SUPP and his branches and service centres?
“There is a total lack of accountability in the application of the MRP funds by the BN ADUNs and ministers.
“On this item of MRP funds alone in which the BN takes great pride about the discriminatory and opaque manner of application, Abang Jo (Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg) and the Sarawak BN has lost all moral standing to talk about ‘integrity’ in its governance and thus the said programme is nothing but a mere public relations exercise to try to whitewash the lack of integrity of the BN government.
“While PH supports good governance and integrity, PH will not partake in the meaningless ‘fake integrity’ public relations exercise of the BN government which is aimed at misleading the people to believe that Sarawak BN practises integrity in its governance while in actual fact there is none.” — DayakDaily
