KUCHING: Political secretary to the Chief Minister, Michael Tiang said he definitely welcomes the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government’s recognition of Sarawak’s rights to have an allocation of special funds under Article 112D of Federal Constitution as announced during the 2020 Budget on Friday.
In a press statement, Tiang said the Sarawak government is only fighting for what is rightly theirs.
“But I must point out that the extra allocation of RM32 million is still far from the 20 per cent oil royalty as promised by PH during the 14th general election (GE14).
“However, the amount allocated under Article 112D for next year is petty when compared to Sarawak’s oil production which is easily more than RM200 million per day.
“As usual, Sarawakians are taken for a ride as PH continues to break their promises.
“I hope the PH Sarawak leaders who are part of the federal government will come clean for once and explain to us Sarawakians why we, being an oil-producing state, are getting less than Sabah,” he said.
He wondered if the 2020 Budget is another political tool used to marginalise Sarawak.
“We have taken a lot of unfavourable policies due to PH’s inefficient ruling during the last two years. Is it going to be a never-ending torture for us to face?
“Where are the PH Sarawak leaders who shouted slogans, wanting to make our lives better before GE 14 but instead we are worse off now?” he added.
He pointed out that the Education Ministry has the biggest allocation under the 2020 Budget but it fails to address the issue of dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
“The Sarawak government has repeatedly requested for RM1 billion to repair dilapidated schools here and despite the huge oil revenue the federal government has taken from us, there was no mercy. Sarawak still has to share the RM783 million allocation with Sabah.
“The Education Ministry also stated that there are no plans to build new schools in Sarawak even though the annual growth rate of Sarawak’s population is around 2 per cent.
“It is trite that we are also facing more rural-to-urban migration that causes shortage of schools and classes. It is always easy to speak from the air-conditioned office in Putrajaya rather than studying and getting the actual scenario on the ground,” he said.
Using SibuJaya as an example, Tiang pointed out that it has only one secondary school and two primary schools to cater for a growing population of 40,000.
He explained that the two primary schools have exceeded their student capacity many years ago.
“This goes to show that over the past 10 years, the relevant PH MP has failed to represent the constituents’ needs,” he said.
