Dilapidated schools in S'wak: Get the repairs done quick

It has been more than six months since the Sarawak and federal governments have been at loggerheads over the issue of dilapidated schools.

More than 1,000 schools in Sarawak, mostly in rural areas, are in dire need of repairs. Despite being six months into the negotiation over the question of funding, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.

The dilly-dallying between Petra Jaya and Putrajaya has got so bad that many concerned Sarawakians, myself included, have nothing good to say about both sides over the delay fiasco.

I understand that some rural schools have requested for repairs for more than a year and still, no help has been forthcoming.

It’s well and good that some MPs and state assemblypersons have managed to use their Minor Rural Projects (MRP) allocation to help out temporarily in more serious cases. But how long can this go on?

One would understand how a Gabungan Parti Sarawak leader was driven so insane by the delay that he angrily retorted, “If education is a state matter, this wouldn’t have happened”.

But this is a political statement and I think that, where issues involving education are concerned, we should leave politics out. Don’t bring politics into education, just as we should not bring politics into religion. It does not benefit anyone.

So, what is the key issue here? It’s all about money, where the funds will come from and how it should be spent.

Before we worry about how the funds should be spent, our first concern is where the money is derived from.

A school in Bintulu, Sarawak. This picture was taken in December 2018.

It has been a long tussle between Sarawak and Putrajaya over the past few months, with a tale too long to fit in this column. This is an update about what transpired between the two sides over the past two to three weeks.

On June 26, the Sarawak government announced that it had accepted the proposal by the Education Ministry for a sum of RM1 billion, which was meant to fund the repair of dilapidated schools in the state, to be parked in a special account which will be monitored by a committee.

According to Michael Manyin, the Sarawak minister in charge of education, based on the agreed proposal, RM300 million will be disbursed this year for the repair of dilapidated schools.

“Next year, maybe another RM300 million and the year after that, another RM300 million, until we reach RM1 billion,” Michael said.

Ten days ago, on July 6, the federal government, in a Finance Ministry (MoF) statement, agreed in principle to partially accept the RM1 billion loan repayment from the Sarawak government, which would be allocated for repairs of dilapidated schools in the state. It added that this would be subject to prescribed legal mechanisms.

One of the mechanisms spelt out that the repair works of the schools in Sarawak should be offered by open tender, to ensure transparency and value for money based on current federal government financial arrangements. This is one laudable move indeed.

MoF also insisted that the Sarawak government still owes as much as RM2.375 billion to the federal government. If the RM1 billion is repaid, it said the Sarawak government still owes the federal government a sum of RM1.375 billion.

Stop the tit-for-tat

I have been following this issue closely and I think the time has come for this tit-for-tat between Putrajaya and Petra Jaya to stop. I have heard enough from both sides, so much so that I’m not interested to hear any more coming from the ongoing spat.

It is time to tell political leaders from both sides that the people, Sarawakians in this case, are fed up with them, for they never seemed to agree on how to get the job done.

While politicians dilly-dally, the people suffer. How much longer will it take to resolve the matter? It’s now time for both sides to treat the dilapidated schools conundrum with the utmost urgency. This matter has been discussed and debated for many months. Those days of negotiations should be over by now.

Rundown schools cannot continue to operate with leaking roofs, broken windows, non-flushable toilets, insufficient tables and chairs for staff and students and so on. Some rural schools are also without electricity and treated water.

I have lauded the mechanism to ensure transparency in the award of the repair jobs. Yes, RM1 billion is a lot of money and it is incumbent upon the authorities to ensure as little wastage as possible in the utilisation of the funds. Gone should be the days of hanky-panky deals.

I would suggest that communities in or near the locations of rundown schools be given contracts. This will also ensure that government contracts also benefit the locals.

Our local people themselves are able to build beautiful double-storey homes in their kampungs. There are self-taught engineers, skilled carpenters, masons, et cetera among them.

These local contractors should be given priority over others. This is, after all, only repairs - work which could easily be handled by the local populace. It’s also time that some of them be given the main contractor job, not mere sub-contractors, as has been the trend in the past.

We should no longer be stuck in the old ways of awarding government contracts, where the main contractor gets the job for doing nothing but enjoys a huge profit margin from the deal.

We should also be wary of suppliers who are particularly good at providing sub-standard materials, working in cahoots with the government supervisory agency at the work sites.

Hopefully, these are lessons from the past that the new government has learnt well.

Let the RM1 billion for the repairs of dilapidated schools in Sarawak really be spent well for the benefit of education in the hornbill state.

---

FRANCIS PAUL SIAH heads the Movement for Change, Sarawak (MoCS) and can be reached at sirsiah@gmail.com - Mkini