KUCHING, June 22: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) Youth chief Datuk Snowdan Lawan said the statement made by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng that Sarawak would be bankrupt in three years’ time is a “blatant, unqualified and an unsupported” statement.
“A supposedly accountable finance minister certainly spoke without reference to facts, statistics and figures available,” he said in a statement today.
Snowdan believed Lim’s intention was to discredit the state government over its budgetary spending on infrastructures.
“It’s our right to develop our state with our own resources and within our means. Why does Lim need to be envious of our capabilities?” he asked.
Snowdan added that Lim had conveniently “forgotten” that budget spending is worked out based on projected revenues generated.
“The state wouldn’t have come out with such a budget without considering its parallel income and Gross Domestic Products (GDP) earnings.
“Our reserve is for liquidity purposes, of which we may not touch if projected revenue, including our new sales tax proceeds, is sufficient,” he highlighted.
Snowdan also revealed that Sarawak still has her A3 stable rating by Moody’s in its April 2019 report.
“Lim purposely thought that he was speaking to farmers and laymen when claiming Sarawak would be bankrupt in 3 years. He was more a confused person when equating resourceful Sarawak to a basically agricultural Kelantan,” stressed Snowdan.
“Maybe he is also too ignorant to know that all these years Malaysia has been depending very much also on Sarawak resources, such as oil and gas, for its revenue,” he elaborated.
Snowdan said Lim was actually trying to paint a “black spot” for the Sarawak government in front of the Sarawak’s public. But for being irrational, he has lost his moral standard to uphold his position as a finance minister.
“He ought to let go. It’s a moral offence,” said Snowdan. — DayakDaily
