Chong just painting rosy picture of under-performing PH govt – MP

KUCHING: Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) lacklustre inaugural year in office continues to be defined by U-turns and unfulfilled election promises, said Bintulu MP Dato Sri Tiong King Sing.

He singled out DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen for continuing to paint a rosy picture of the under-performing economy since PH took over the federal government last May.

“Their only ammunition is talking about saving the country from bankruptcy by dragging Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders through the court system, harping on the RM1 trillion national debt and their institutional reforms.

“Butalltheseso-calledachievements do not explain their excuses for inconsequential policies,” Tiong, who is also president of Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), said in a statement Tuesday.

Tiong referred to international reports that Malaysia’s economy has taken a beating as global funds bypass the country as a sign of lower confidence that the federal government’s intended reforms would materialise.

In a sign of a slowing economy, Bank Negara last week cut the OPR rate for the first time since July 2016, to brace against downside risks from dampened global growth and weakness in the commodity-led industrial sectors.

TiongsaidmostofPH’simplemented policies were either U-turns or populist in nature serving as a smokescreen for other letdowns.

“Building a third national car project, congestion charge for tolled highways, salary deductions for PTPTN payments, returning the GST to SST, abolishing lower primary school examination, these are the sum of PH’s achievements,” he said.

He went on to demand that the PH government show where the federal development allocations for Sarawak were placed.

“The PH Finance Minister claims that Sarawak receives the largest amount of funding, but where are these funds?” he asked, adding that Sabah, which is a PH-led state, had clearly been given the lion’s share of development funding compared to Sarawak.

“Sarawak has been vexed by the federal government, with a large reduction in funding and stagnant development. On the contrary, it has made a big show of a RM2.28 billion development grant to Sabah in the Sandakan by-election,” he added.