KUCHING, Oct 17: Sarawak For Sarawakian (S4S) opines Sarawak needs at least RM100 billion of development fund every year in order to catch up with the neighboring countries.
S4S spokesperson Alex Leong, who is also Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi)’s potential candidate for Batu Lintang, said the RM10.6 billion of Sarawak Budget 2022 announced by the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg is not a surprise at all and not enough, as it only slow down the development pace in the State.
According to him, Sarawak’s slow development is not on par with countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, and the development gap with Singapore and the Peninsula Malaysia will also widen.
“Sarawak has about 6,000 villages with dilapidated infrastructure and more than 1,000 dilapidated schools. Apart from that, the communication infrastructure are also outdated which resulted in more than half of the rural population experiencing slow internet connectivity.
“There are still the Pan Borneo projects that took decades and still unfinished, and dozens of bridges across the river are in dire need of construction. Therefore, the budget is still insufficient,” he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, Alex also pointed out that when the Federal government continues to take the oil and gas resources worth hundreds of billion from Sarawak, but only giving back tens of billion of fund, it clearly indicated that the Federal government is insincere to develop the State.
He said while the Federation continue to chant the spirits of Unity among Malaysians, it actually regards Sarawak as an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM).
“Of course Sarawakians are very disappointed, because 95 per cent from the nearly RM100 billion of resources are allocated for the development of Malaya every year.
“This will also cause more people in Sarawak to give up on the Federal government, and turn their attention towards a strong political party that fights for the secession of Sarawak from Malaysia, and will use their votes to let the Federal government know about their frustration,” he added. — DayakDaily.
