KUCHING: The 2020 Budget is encouraging but the Sarawak Patriots Association (SPA) asks for fairness in allocations given to Sarawak for the development expenditures.
Its president Datuk John Lau said this when contacted by New Sarawak Tribune to comment on the 2020 Budget delivered by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday.
He told, “Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya are equal partners as agreed in the Malaysian Agreement 1963 (MA63). Thus, the financial allocations must reflect the fair partnership.
“What is allocated to the Peninsula needs to be allocated equally to Sarawak and Sabah. Only in this case, we are equal partners.”
Looking at the budget Sabah gets RM5.2 billion and Sarawak gets RM4.4 billion, Datuk John
questioned why the difference?
“Why is it that among the two states, Sarawak’s allocation is lower? Each day over 850,000 barrels of oil is mined in Sarawak,” he stated.
He further added that SPA wants to see justice, fairness and equal partnership for Sarawak in the budget. Although Sarawak is under the leadership of the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government, the federal government needs to recognise that people living in Sarawak are Malaysians.
