KUCHING, Oct 15: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng should understand the needs of Sarawakians and stop trying to please them, according to Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing.
Instead, what is crucial is for the federal government to allocate more funds to Sarawak to implement projects for the people, especially in the rural areas.
“Lim accused Sarawak as ‘hard to please’. He got the things all wrong. It is not his duty to please Sarawak, and besides we don’t want an ‘apple polishing’ Minister of Finance.
“All we want is a fair deal based on what Sarawak should have in accordance with the Federal Constitution and on what he promised us in the PH (Pakatan Harapan) manifesto during the 14th general election (GE14). Seventeen per cent of the total budget given to Sarawak is not a fair deal when we pump out 85,000 barrels of crude oil per day,” according to Masing here today.
He claimed that apart from failing to fulfil GE14 promises, Lim has never said anything positive about Sarawak.
“How does he expect Sarawakians to be thankful to him? My advice to him is that he must understand that he is the Minister of Finance and his words affect the markets,” added Masing.
He was commenting on news reports quoting Lim as saying it was not easy to please Sarawak after tabling the Budget 2020 in Parliament last Friday. — DayakDaily
