By Peter Sibon
KUCHING, Nov 9: Deputy Minister of Rural Development Sivarasa Rasiah has advised Kemas teachers to decide whether they wanted to join politics or concentrate on educating children.
“In this regard, there has been misunderstanding about the issue. Before this, Kemas (Kemajuan Masyarakat) teachers have been asked and some are involved in certain political parties, which is actually not their core business.
“Now, we want them to focus on their core business, which is to provide quality education for children, especially in kindergartens in the rural areas.
“We have told them, if you want to be involved in politics, then they have to go,” he told reporters after paying a courtesy call on Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas at the latter’s office in the DUN Complex here today.
On the federal government’s allocation for rural development, Sivarasa said about RM3 billion had been set aside for the purpose across the country.
“This amount will be equally shared between Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah,” he assured.
Meanwhile, commenting on the visit, Uggah said the government had set up two working committees, one at the ministerial level and one at the offices’ level.
“These two committees have been set up to implement projects and to prevent project duplications in the rural areas, such as for water, electricity and road,” he said.
When asked for his comment on Sivarasa’s announcement that the RM3 billion for rural development was for the whole country, Uggah said he was not aware because the matter was not discussed during the courtesy call.
“But under the state budget, more than RM4 billion has been set aside for the purpose of rural development to provide water, electricity and roads to the rural communities.
“This will include social-economic development as well as poverty eradication,” said Uggah. — DayakDaily
