KUCHING: Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen said Sarawak and Sabah were discriminated against in the 2021 Budget.
He said this was despite the “king-maker” role played by the state and the fact that the Perikatan Nasional government had appointed a Minister of Sabah and Sarawak Affairs.
“The operating expenditure allocated for the Sabah and Sarawak Division in the PMD (Prime Minister’s Department) for year 2021 is a meagre RM22 million compared to the RM4.47 billion operating expenditure allocated for the PMD.
“Staff strength wise, the Sabah and Sarawak Division has only 106 officers compared to the total 24,000 officers in PMD. It seems that the Minister of Sabah and Sarawak Affairs is the only minister who has no Development Expenditure allocated for its portfolio,” he said when debating on 2021 Budget Committee Stage on Prime Minister Department on Monday (Nov 30).
Chong said under the 2021 Budget for the PMD, Perbadanan Kemajuaan Negeri Johor was allocated RM14 million, Perbadanan Kemajuaan Negeri Kedah (RM16 million), Perbadanan Kemajuaan Negeri Kelantan (RM7 million), Perbadanan Kemajuaan Negeri Terengganu (RM10 million) and Perbadanan Kemajuaan Negeri Sabah (RM9 million).
“Shockingly, Perbadanan Kemajuaan Negeri Sarawak was only allocated RM665,000,” he added.
“Even the development expenditure (DE) for Sabah and Sarawak was reduced in percentage from 17.14% under 2020 Budget to 13.91% in 2021 Budget,” he said.
In 2020 Budget, Chong said the total DE was RM56 billion and a sum of RM9.6 billion was allocated specifically for Sabah and Sarawak.
In 2021 Budget, the total DE was increased substantially to RM69 billion, yet, the DE allocation for Sabah and Sarawak remained stagnant at RM9.6 billion, he said.
Chong alleged that the budgetary allocation under the PMD was clearly unfair to Sabah and Sarawak.
To right this wrong, he said he had submitted a motion for an additional allocation of RM3 billion to be placed under the portfolio of the Minister of Sabah and Sarawak Affairs.
However, he said his motion was rejected by the Speaker and the PN government.
