Baru slams Mahathir over his blatant statement

Kuching, Sept 8, 2012: Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian slammed former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for his blatant statement in the people of Sarawak and Sabah to be patient with the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

“The blatant statement perfectly demonstrates what the BN government thinks of us in Sarawak and Sabah,” the Ba’Kelalan state assemblyman said in a statement today.

Baru stressed:”We are regarded as the ignorant and unquestioning fixed deposit states that are in this country to be milked dry to fund the excessive spending crazes in Peninsular Malaysia.

“We have been patient for 49 years.  How many more years does this old man thinks he can fool us to wait?

“What does he mean by saying  “just be patient and wait for the resources to be extracted and soon your earnings (and development)” will increase?

Baru said that UMNO and BN have been making huge ‘withdrawals’ from Sarawak and Sabah’s oil and gas resources via Petronas for over 30 years now, while giving the two states crumbs to keep them quiet.  

“I wish to ask him in his capacity as Petronas advisor what Petronas has been doing in Sarawak and Sabah all these years if not extracting our precious resources?

“I wish to ask him as the former prime minister how much money from these precious resources of ours that the federal government has taken for their lavish spending and crony bailouts in Peninsula Malaysia over the years while Sarawak and its people continue to lag behind in all aspects.

“Thus it is all the more outrageous that Mahathir should say in his next breath, “In truth, I think that the development of Sabah and Sarawak has outstripped the peninsula. Sarawak has the highest foreign direct investment and Sabah has the largest reserves of petroleum in the country.”  

“As Chairman of PKR Sarawak, I challenge Mahathir to come to Sarawak and tell this to the people who still have no access to electricity, clean water, health care, education and jobs in the deepest reaches of sarawak.

“Tell this to the numerous families who have lost loved ones in accidents along our killer Pan-Borneo Highway.

“Tell this to the people who are now waking up to the fact that Sarawak has been taken for a ride all these years by the Federal BN government. Come to Sarawak, Mahathir, and say this to our faces,” Baru challenged. By Sematong Express.