KUCHING: Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing has described Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii’s statement about the dilapidated schools issue as “incoherent”.
According to Tiong also, Dr Yii’s defence of the federal government’s lax attitude regarding the matter is tantamount to ruining the future of thousands of affected students.
“The worst thing about his incoherent statement is that it clearly is to take advantage of the situation to gain political mileage.
“It is sad that he must resort to deceiving the people and arouse hatred for the state government, which continues to place education quality as a policy priority,” Tiong said.
Bintulu MP Tiong said the state government had in fact always sought to actively coordinate with the federal government on allocations to allay the problems of hundreds of schools in Sarawak.
“These days, the federal government however is prone to giving the excuse of lack of funding to not carry out the most urgent repairs.”
Tiong said Dr Yii should realise that the federal government is in fact the one holding the state’s dilapidated schools hostage by not honouring the agreement that had been drawn up between both parties, which says that the first payment of RM350mil should be completed first.
“How can a supposedly highly educated person such as Dr Yii fail to understand the basic urgency of the situation?
“Isn’t he aware that the students and parents of many schools are affected on a daily basis as long as the repairs continue to be delayed?
“We are talking about urgent repairs to avoid safety risks, not only education quality. Yet, he uses this opportunity to portray himself as a defender of the federal government’s purported need for procedures and implementation rules when the quality of education and lives are at stake,” Tiong shot back.
“Worse still, Dr Yii alluded again to the legacy of the previous Barisan Nasional government.
“Is he now guaranteeing on his own conscience that the implementation processes by the current Pakatan Harapan (PH) government are completely transparent and devoid of funds misappropriation?” Tiong questioned.
Tiong said even Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had stated the federal government would speed up the process of procurement and expenditure to repair Sarawak’s dilapidated schools as soon as the state government made the RM350mil repayment to the debt.
“Obviously, Sarawak has done its best to honour this agreement but when are we seeing
the federal government hold up its end?
“This lax response to the agreement shows no sincerity and willingness to deal with the situation by the federal government. But their leaders continue to issue statements to make excuses and blame it on anyone else but themselves,” Tiong lamented.
“Perhaps, the repair of schools has never been on the PH government’s agenda but a vehicle for them to gain political mileage. It is doubtful that the PH government can be relied on to handle more complex financial matters when carrying out urgent repairs on schools seems to be beyond their capabilities.”
Tiong said the task of repairing dilapidated schools had been delayed for nearly two years since PH took office. “There has been no progress whatsoever. There has been too much politicking.”
He agreed with the Chief Minister that the federal government has not only been an unreliable partner but irresponsible when it puts politics above children’s future.
