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KUCHING, Aug 3: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Women chief Kho Teck Wan suggests that the time might be right for the people to choose a new representative to replace Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak’s Chong Chieng Jen for someone who complains less about allocation shortages and has the capability to fight for people’s interests through concrete action.
Critising Chong’s approach of continually emphasising the comparatively lower allocation for Members of Parliament (MPs) compared to the elected members of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Kho said that it clearly showed that Chong does not have the will or is capable of fighting for additional funding from the Federal government for Sarawak.
“Instead of continuing to mislead the public on the amount of financial grants allocated, I suggest that Chong directs his efforts towards securing more financial grants from the Federal government so he can serve the people of Stampin and Padungan better,” she said in a statement today.
Kho, who is also political secretary to Sarawak Premier, was responding to Chong’s remarks made during a grant presentation event for the Coffeeshop Owners Association that Federal MPs receive an annual allocation of RM4 million, while elected GPS members are allocated RM9 million.
Kho also refuted Chong’s statement, which she claimed implies that GPS elected members receive seven times more allocation than MPs as being factually incorrect.
“It is clear that RM9 million and RM4 million is evidently not a sevenfold difference.
“But I would like to thank Chong for disclosing the amount of allocation from the Federal government, as we had all along assumed that the Federal allocation was only RM3 million,” she said.
However, Kho took the opportunity to clarify that, contrary to Chong’s claims, both Federal and Sarawak elected representatives receive RM2 million in financial grants for non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
“In fact, I’m happy to see that NGOs in Kuching and Stampin areas have more options to seek funding for activities from both federal and State representatives. However, it is sad to see that instead of giving out financial grants sincerely, it is being used by Chong as an opportunity to mislead the public,” she added. — DayakDaily
