KUCHING: A Sarawak minister says the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government has failed to keep its promise to Sarawakians, describing the 2020 Budget as “Malaya-centric”.
State Local Government and Housing Minister Dr Sim Kui Hian said Sabah and Sarawak only received 17.1% of the total allocation of RM56 billion for development.
The Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) president said Sabah received RM5.2 billion whereas Sarawak received only RM4.4 billion from the 2020 Budget.
“Putrajaya, throughout these years, had earned RM660 billion from our oil and gas, since the development of Petronas in 1974.”
Sim, who is also Batu Kawa assemblyman, said in the 2020 Budget, Sabah and Sarawak only received RM783 million to repair the states’ dilapidated schools.
“Sarawak has more than 1,000 dilapidated schools, not hundreds,” he said, adding that the allocation provided by the federal government was insufficient.
In the 2017 Budget, he said the previous government had allocated RM1 billion to Sabah and Sarawak respectively for two years, but now the Sarawak government has to pay its RM1 billion debt with the federal government in advance in order to repair the dilapidated schools in the state.
He said Sarawakians only wanted a fair share of funds so that they too could enjoy better services and facilities, in terms of medical facilities, schools and roads.
Besides that, Sim said Sarawak also had a shortage of hospitals with specialists and if there was one, it would be located very far from the villages.
“Patients (from rural areas) have to travel great distances and have to pay for their own cost of transportation.
“They (federal government) has failed to provide Sarawakians the necessary development and it is time for them to give us the autonomy so we can get on with the necessary mammoth tasks immediately.”
‘Poor neighbour‘
Meanwhile, Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspirations (Sapa) president Dominique Ng described the amount of allocation given to Sarawak as “peanuts” compared to the huge amount of income they earned from the state’s oil and gas as well as taxes.
“Sarawak has always been regarded and treated as the poor colonised neighbour.
“Our resources are taken willy-nilly and we are given only a pittance in return even when they (federal government) know how backward in development we are.
“We have never been properly treated and will never be, till we gain our independence. Let Sarawakians be in control of our own resources and we should not let Putrajaya dictate how much of our money is given back to us,” he told FMT.
‘Allocations increasing’
However, Works Minister Baru Bian had a different take on the 2020 Budget, saying the total amount of allocations which Sarawak received had shown an improvement compared with the 2019 Budget.
“I believe it has to be done within the capacity of the government of the day.
“Most importantly, all the federal projects would be implemented well because there’s no point for us to declare a huge number of projects but none of them are implemented.
“You have to be very reasonable and, at the same time, responsible for Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
In fact, Baru said it had been raised in the federal Cabinet that each ministry is required to give “special” attention to the Borneon states with whatever allocation is given to the ministry.
“I’m very happy with the allocation given (to Sabah and Sarawak),” he said.
He said the present government had “listened” to the voices of the people in Sabah and Sarawak and was aware of the lack of development in the state.
“This (the 2020 Budget) shows that the Pakatan Harapan government is responsible and it’s proven that we really give our attention to Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
However, Bandar Kuching MP Kelvin Yii said he believed that there is still room for improvement in the budget, especially to properly address the imbalance in development among the regions in Malaysia and to help Sarawak to “catch up” in many aspects and fully enjoy the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030.
“While we acknowledge that the lack of development due to mismanagement for the past 50 over years cannot be addressed even in a few years, more allocations, especially with regards to more development in the rural areas, is still needed.”
Yii also said special grants for Sabah and Sarawak, under Article 112(D) of the Federal Constitution, were never reviewed since 1969 under the previous administration.
“The PH government has doubled the special grant to RM32 million for 2020 and will increase it further to RM64 million in the next five years for Sarawak.
“I will be pushing for a higher allocation under Special Grant Article 112(d) of the Federal Constitution as well as get updates on the negotiations between the prime minister and the chief minister on our rights to our oil and gas and other natural resources,” he said. - FMT
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