By Karen Bong
KUCHING, May 23: Padungan assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen has urged the Office of the Premier of Sarawak to publicly disclose detailed expenditure of official overseas trips undertaken by the Premier, Ministers, and Deputy Ministers, asserting that the people of Sarawak have the right to know how public funds are being spent.
He made the call during a press conference at the Media Room of the Sarawak Legislative Assembly today after raising concerns in the Chamber over government spending—particularly an additional RM100 million requested by the Department of the Premier of Sarawak for air charter services, as part of a newly passed Supplementary Supply (2025) Bill totalling RM237.66 million.
Chong criticised the rejection of a question raised by Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong during the first day of the sitting, which sought a breakdown of overseas travel expenses over the past five years.
The rejection, he said, was made on the grounds that it contravenes public policy—an explanation he deemed both perplexing and unacceptable.
“(In the Chamber earlier) The Deputy Speaker Dato Idris Buang said it was rejected due to security and confidentiality. I confronted him directly and told him not to treat us like three-year-olds. The question was about past trips, not future ones—so where is the security risk?” he asserted.
Chong stressed that Yong merely asked for a detailed breakdown of the expenditure, specifying the name of each ministry, the names of the respective minister and deputy minister, the destination, purpose, duration and the number of officials and family members accompany the Premier, Minister, deputy minister and the total expenses of expenditure of each trip.
“That is a fair question, given past approvals such as in 2024 where a supplementary allocation of RM3 million was made for overseas trips under the Ministry of Public Health, Housing and Local Government,” he said.
He thus expressed concern that with this year’s RM100 million allocation for air charters, overseas trip expenses could be running into the millions across ministries.
Urging the Sarawak government not to hide the figure, Chong emphasised the urgent need for stronger checks and balances in the Sarawak Assembly, lamenting the current 80-to-2 seat imbalance in favour of the ruling coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak.
“Even in Singapore, known globally for its clean governance, at least 10 per cent of Parliament comprises the opposition. Here, it’s less than two per cent which is absolutely insufficient. ,” he said.
Chong concluded by renewing his call for transparency. “Despite all this, I urge the Office of the Premier to publish the details on its official website. There is no justification for hiding this from the people. The people of Sarawak have every right to know how their money is being spent.” — DayakDaily
