KUCHING, Oct 14: The Federal government has reaped RM6,680 billion from Sarawak’s oil and gas alone since 1974, but only returned RM35 billion to the State, claims Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan.
Voon urged Sarawakians to stick with local-based Opposition parties to fight for Sarawak’s interests and rights during the 15th General Election (GE15).
“This is because both Malaya-based political parties and GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) could not do much to restore Sarawak to its rightful position.
“Are Sarawakians happy with the GPS government? Are Sarawakians happy with the role SUPP (Sarawak United Peoples’ Party) was playing all these years?” he questioned in a statement today.
Voon claims that he learned out about the revenue loss from Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) president Dato Sr Wong Soon Koh who is also a former finance minister.
“Now, being no longer in Cabinet, no one can stop him (Wong) from disclosing to us the revenues collected by the Federal government from Sarawak (unlike when Wong was in the cabinet and tied under the oath of secrecy),” he said.
Voon, who was former Batu Lintang assemblyman from 2006 to 2011, also recalled giving Wong a very hard time during his days as a member of the Sarawak legislature as he never failed to raise questions about the revenues that had been taken by the Federal government, especially from oil and gas since the day Sarawak was part of the Federation of Malaysia.
Apart from oil and gas, Voon added that he and Wong are seriously concerned about the loss of revenues from taxes collected in Sarawak including land, transport, customs, inland revenue, police, judiciary and other Federal government departments.
As such, Voon echoed Wong’s call for Sarawakians to elect local-based Opposition party candidates during the upcoming parliamentary polls to fight for Sarawak’s rights.
Meanwhile, PBK has joined forces with PSB and Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDS Baru) in order to put up a fair fight and prevent seat clashes in GE15. — DayakDaily
