Friday 13 February 2015

Make good your pledges, Baru tells Muhyiddin



 "Common sense will tell us that it is because all the decisions and selections are made by bureaucrats and technocrats in Peninsular Malaysia who do not have the interests of Sarawak at heart. " 

KUCHING, Feb 13, 2015: Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) chairman Baru Bian has told Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to make good his pledge to repair and rebuild dilapidated schools in Sarawak and Sabah, and not to wait for elections to be called.

"The allocation of RM1 billion pledged in February last year to repair and rebuild 600 dilapidated schools in two states appears to have just an empty talk," he said today.
Baru Bian


He said that the Education Blueprint states that by December 2013, all 1,608 schools requiring critical repairs would be fixed and that these repairs would start in Sabah and Sarawak.

"That too, was just empty talk – almost all the schools in my area are still in need of critical repairs.

"What is the reason for the dire situation our Education system is in?" he asked.

He added:"Common sense will tell us that it is because all the decisions and selections are made by bureaucrats and technocrats in Peninsular Malaysia who do not have the interests of Sarawak at heart. "

He said over 50 years later, Sarawak is still languishing behind West Malaysia. " Am I the only person who thinks that the BN government has let us down over and over again?" he asked.

He said the statement Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, that special attention would be given to Sarawak in their new guidelines implies that  federal government has failed Sarawakians.

"I have said it before, and I will say it again that education is crucial for our advancement.

"Sarawakians cannot progress and prosper if we cannot provide proper and superior educational facilities and teachers for our younger generation.

"We must be responsible for all aspects of Education, because those civil servants in Peninsular Malaysia are not going to care about us.

"The minister may say there is no bias and promise us the moon but he is not the one carrying out the work, at the end of the day.

"The posting of teachers from Peninsular Malaysia is not an answer to our problems. As (PRS president and Land Development  Minister) Tan Sri James Masing said  that it is a political problem.  Fifty-two years of this is enough. We must take charge of our own destiny. "

"We need to reclaim control of Education but most importantly, we need to change the government.

"The Federal Government has made such a mess of it that we should have the right to take it back and try to restore it to its former glory," he added.

Baru, who is also State lawmaker for Ba'Kelalan, said he supports calls for more Sarawakian teachers to be trained and posted in Sarawak, instead of sending teachers from Peninsular  Malaysia.

He said the magnanimous offer by the Education Ministry to lower the entry requirements so that more Sarawakians can be trained, is a reflection of the patronising attitude of Peninsular Malaysian politicians towards Sarawakians.

"They would do well to recall that Sarawak once had top class civil servants and a superior standard of education. That is, until we decided to entrust the Federal government with the Education portfolio, and relinquished control of almost all our government departments to them," he added.

He said since that Sarawak has been on a downhill slide and Sarawak ministers, or those of them who care to, have to keep on begging for better facilities and more funds from the Federal government, often to no avail.

"Even when funds are promised, they do not seem to come. The Education Minister admitted it himself in yesterday," he said.

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