By Baru Bian
Prime Minister Najib Razak has asked Sarawakians for a
strong mandate for Chief Minister Adenan Satem so they can continue to
negotiate on empowerment and other things.
The CM already has two-thirds majority in the State
Assembly and even with unanimous support from the members for a motion to
demand an increase in our oil royalty payments, he still could not influence
the PM to agree to it and our other demands. What is another five years going
to achieve?
Coming to Sarawak before the elections to dangle carrots
shows insincerity – the PM should give us the funds that we deserve when
setting the budget. We know from years of experience that announcements of
allocations do not translate to hard cash.
In fact, the PM
had slashed the last budget, cutting allocations for education, infrastructure,
health, etc, almost all items except the allocations to his own PM’s
Department. Just in December last year, the Minister for Infrastructure and
Communications told me in the DUN (Hansard 8 Dec 2015) that there was no
allocation from the Federal government so the state government could not
maintain some roads in Ba’ Kelalan.
So how are we to believe that the PM is suddenly awash
with funds for us now?
The PM should explain to us what this ‘oneness spirit
between the state and federal government’ is, and the CM should explain what
the PM has done that he deserves to be hailed as the best Prime Minister as far
as Sarawak is concerned.
The CM has not been able to extract anything of substance
from the PM and yet he tells us Najib holds us close to his heart? He came
during the time Kuching was inundated by flooding and yet he did not bring any
flood relief for us.
He has said no to increased oil royalty, no to autonomy,
no to UEC and remained silent about our use of English as an official language.
Sarawakians are not spared the ‘Allah’ ban even though he promised it would not
affect us.
His Education Minister insulted Christians and came to
visit our Christian majority state without any shame. So what ‘oneness’ and
‘best PM’ are they talking about?
The PM’s veiled threats about the dire repercussions if
the voters choose to vote for the opposition is disgraceful. Besides, the
negotiations on empowerment that the PM implies will be threatened if the
people ‘erred’ in the state polls are not what we are asking for.
We want autonomy, which is our right and which is not
negotiable. Given the chance, Pakatan Harapan will return to Sarawak these
rights, unlike this BN government, who is trying to hang on to their lifeline
fixed deposit at all costs, for their political survival.
It is disappointing that the CM continues to openly
support a PM who is reported to be under investigation overseas for his role in
the 1MDB scandal. The CM said less than two weeks ago that 1MDB has nothing to
do with Sarawak and that he does not know what is going on with that.
But today’s papers reported that 1MDB has been carrying
on projects in Sarawak under 1M Sarawak led by Joseph Salang and 1MDB Foundation
is sending 150 Sarawakians on the haj. Is the CM still going to say 1MDB has
nothing to do with Sarawak? Did he not know about these projects and the free
haj?
He had better make an effort to understand what is going
on with the whole corruption scandal and read up on the international
investigations. He should stop singing empty praises about the PM until he gets
the full picture so he doesn’t risk future embarrassment.
Perhaps we should just be thankful that the PM recognises
that we have ‘all sorts of problems’ and the CM acknowledges that we are still
lagging behind West Malaysia in development even after 53 years of UMNO/BN
rule.
The solution to these problems is to get rid of BN and
Najib. Giving the BN 5 years more would send this county into a deeper crisis,
as has been said by political analysts.
Pakatan Harapan
will put in place credible and capable leaders who will practise good
governance, accountability and transparency. We must change or we will sink. -
March 1, 2016
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