SIBU, March 12: Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) members have been urged to work hard to serve the people.
Speaking at the 20th Sarawak DAP Annual Conference, DAP National Organising Secretary Steven Sim proposed three things for Sarawak DAP to do to further strengthen its role in the region.
“You need to use the party platform to work hard. This is because Sarawak DAP is not weak, because it has five Members of Parliament, one of whom is the Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, two members of the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (ADUN), and there are ministers and deputy ministers at the federal level.
“Use the platform to work hard for the people. I believe the people will judge and the people will see our performance,” he said.
Secondly, he wants Sarawak DAP to continue to be the voice of conscience for the people, whether they are in the government or opposition.
Sim also wanted the party to continue to be a fortress in preventing extremist politics from taking root not only in Sarawak but also in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, in his speech, Sim also said Budget 2023 is committed towards recognising the rights of Sabah and Sarawak under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) due to the increase in development allocation for the two regions.
“In the special allocation under Article 112E of the Federal Constitution, the Prime Minister (Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim) had announced an allocation increase from RM16 million last year to RM300 million in Budget 2023 for Sarawak. We can see from this that finally there is a real and actual commitment of the federal government towards this equal partnership towards Sarawak and also Sabah,” he pointed out.
Sim who is also the Deputy Finance Minister said besides that, Anwar had last week also announced a RM600 million special allocation for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sarawak in the form of grants and micro-credit facilities.
“Overall, the allocation for Sarawak has increased from RM4.6 billion to RM5.6 billion—an extra of RM1 billion for development expenditure. This shows that the government is committed towards recognising the rights of Sabah and Sarawak and all these especially DAP in Sarawak stood firm on the issue of MA63,’ he said.
Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen also spoke at the conference. — DayakDaily
