KUCHING: “Pakatan Harapan remains consistent in our stand and sincere in our intention to fulfil our promise of devolution of powers to Sarawak and State Government regardless of its political affiliation, but the onus will be on the State Government to accept the agreement and responsibility that comes with the devolution of powers,” said Dr Kelvin Yii, Member of Parliament for Bandar Kuching.
“In order for us to devolve power to the state, the state must agree to accept it. We have made the offer not just once, with even the leadership of Pakatan Harapan Sarawak personally delivering the agreement to the Chief Minister Office which includes all the BN Sarawak component party leaders, but they have rejected the agreement and also the responsibility through the devolution of powers.
“Thus, the attitude of the Sarawak government is making the devolution process difficult. We cannot give them something they do not want, even though we see no reason for them to reject the deal if they truly believed in the devolution of powers that was fought for during the time of the late Adenan Satem.”
The agreement touches on, among others, the restoration of territorial integrity and devolution of powers in taxation and public revenues, education, health, social security, civil infrastructure development, natural resources and tourism. He stated that even though the agreement was rejected by the State BN government, PH still has sincere intentions to honour its promise in its manifesto to the people of Sarawak especially those that uphold the interest of Sarawak including the devolution of autonomous powers.
“We will make sure the mechanism of such devolution will beMarketdirectly benefitting the people of Sarawak without the risk of BN Sarawak abusing those rights at the expense of the people or for personal gain,” he added. Dr Yii assured that since taking over federal power in Putrajaya, Pakatan Harapan has been working overtime to fulfil promises not just to people of Sarawak, but to the whole Malaysia.
It has only been 3 working days, and they have facilitated the pardon and release of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, institutional reforms including the separation of the Ministry of Finance portfolio from the Prime Minister, the removal of GST, releasing the Auditor General report on 1MDB to public, launched a comprehensive investigation into 1MDB as well as forming a comprehensive council on economy and institutional reforms.
“Thus, it is clear in our intentions to fulfil what we have promised to the people including what is best for the people of Sarawak. The onus of the said agreement lies within the State Government who rejected the devolution of powers that we are offering thus showing that they may not have the best interest of Sarawak at heart,” he said.
