KUCHING: Sarawak should not only have a 100% Sarawak based ruling party but also a 100% Sarawak-based opposition party to better safeguard Sarawak’s interests, said SUPP assistant publicity and information secretary Lo Khere Chiang.
“This is to ensure transparency and fair governance,” he added. Parroting Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s statement almost word for word, Lo, who is also Batu Kitang assemblyman, similarly stressed that only Sarawakians and Sarawak-based political parties, both the ruling and opposition parties, would be able to effectively protect and fight for Sarawak’s rights and interests.
In this context, he described state DAP chairman, who is also Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Deputy Minister Chong Chieng Jen’s remark saying the chief minister’s statement as a mere political trickery as nothing more than a show of arrogance.
“Just look at Pakatan Harapan. In almost every promise and agenda made, there was a U-turn like the oil and gas revenue of 20%, the return of 50% taxes collected, the return of education and health autonomy to Sarawak, the return of equal status of Sarawak and Sabah with Malaya, the refusal to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate, just to name a few.
“He (Chong) and the rest of the Sarawak MPs from Pakatan Harapan are now ( behaving) quiet like a mouse. Look at his (Chong’s) performance in the last six months. He dared not utter anything that will offend his Malayan masters,” he said.
Lo added that recently the Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced a RM30bil dividend from Petronas but Sarawak was again left out. To add salt to the wound, Lo said that Dr Mahathir was reported as saying that Petronas did not feel the pinch with the RM30bil dividend taken out of its coffer. Dr Mahathir was further quoted as saying; “30 billion ringgit is nothing to them (Petronas).” Lo said he would like to ask why Sarawak was never being given any share out of the special dividend when 30% of the country’s revenue from petroleum actually came from the state.
He went onto say that Malaya took 33 years to disburse a total of RM30b accumulative royalty from petroleum to Sarawak but it took Petronas just one single transaction to disburse RM30bil to Malaya. Lo asked: “If PH is really as fair and transparent as they advocate, everything that Malaya gets, we in Sabah and Sarawak should get too. After all the promises PH made before the election, we are still getting a miserable 5% of the RM15b annually.
Where are the promises of equal status and fairness promised to Sarawak and Sabah?” Asking Sarawakians to look at Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian’s recent predicament, Lo said it was a case of Malaya mistreating a Sarawakian and thus the need for a Sarawak-based party to understand and to take care of Sarawakians. “Even before Malaya gathers strength, Sarawak has already been sidelined,” he added.
