SIBU: The Bukit Assek Excellent SPM Student Academic Incentive is only for students whose schools are located within the Bukit Assek constituency, said its assemblyman Joseph Chieng.
He said unlike other people’s representatives who distribute their incentive via application through their service centre, he has chosen to distribute the incentive to schools within his constituency.
“SMK Bukit Assek and SMK Sacred Heart are within my constituency.
“However, SMK St Elizabeth is not, it is under the Pelawan constituency. Last year I already explained to parents regarding this incentive and its limitation, and they understand,” he said in a press conference on Monday (June 3).
Chieng said this in response to Parti Sarawak Bersatu’s (PSB) Bukit Assek branch which claimed that SMK Bukit Assek and SMK Sacred Heart are not eligible for the incentive but SMK St Elizabeth is as it is one of Bukit Assek’s polling centres.
He urged PSB Bukit Assek branch not to confuse the public regarding this matter.
“Please don’t do that. Enough is enough. Don’t spread something that is not true to mislead the public. We shouldn’t do that,” he said.
Chieng stressed that the rural transformation project (RTP) and minor rural project (MRP) funds given to each assemblyman, have limitations as they can only distributed within the respective constituency.
“I would like to remind that there are auditors coming to my service centre and auditing all my MRP and RTP accounts. So, I don’t have any issue on this.
“I know what I’m doing. If I make a mistake, of course, I will change it but for this, I’m very familiar with my constituency. I even asked the Public Works Department about my constituency boundaries,” he said.
Chieng challenged PSB President Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh as well as PSB Bukit Assek branch to offer the same incentive to students within their constituency instead of making such comment.
SMK St Elizabeth Old Students Association president Elizabeth Tang confirmed that the school is in the Pelawan constituency.
Meanwhile, Sacred Heart Old Students Association president Penghulu Yong King Sung supported the assemblyman, saying that though Chieng liked to help he cannot go overboard by crossing over to another constituency.
A total 254 students who achieved 5As and above in the 2022 SPM examination from SMK Sacred Heart, SMK Methodist, SMK Bukit Assek and Catholic High School received the Excellent Student Academic Incentive.
