By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Jan 3: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan criticised the government as being power crazy and for losing focus on helping the people especially in improving the standard of living of Muslims living along the coastal area.
He said the government under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) have been vocal about protecting Muslims but had not implemented measures such as building bridges in the coastal area which could spur the economy and the mobility of the rural population.
Citing the recent the Triso ferry tragedy which killed a family of nine, Voon asserted the state government should have built rural bridges earlier before the Darul Hana bridge crossing the Sarawak river which is not used by many people.
“They had been blinded by their own greed and selfishness fighting with each other and the opposition on how to hold onto power.
“That caused them to lose focus to understand and to see that most citizens who lived in coastal areas including Triso, Sebuyau and coastal areas in Sarawak are Malays or Muslims that needed their help.
“These people travelling along these coastal areas have to cross rivers by boats and ferries.
“The state government should know very well of the many incidences of deaths in past years of vehicles used by the victims plunging into many rivers in Sarawak,” he said in a press statement.
Voon asserted that bridges should have been built to boost the economy and mobility of rural and coastal population but it was not done.
Instead, he noted the state government used the money to build the Darul Hana Bridge in Kuching that was not used by many people.
He opined that the Daru Hana bridge is a scenic and pretty structure with no economic value as well as a sheer waste of public money for its construction and maintenance and utility bills.
Voon also claimed that there were no good reasons for the construction of some bridges crossing the rivers in Sarawak as well as the cancelling of various bridge projects by the former Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government.
He believed construction of those bridges had been long overdue.
“The government is fully responsible for their deaths (of the victims in the Triso ferry incident) by not building the bridge.
“Had the bridge been built, no such tragedy would have happened. Why cancel the construction of the bridge?” he questioned. — DayakDaily
