Sarawak’s devt biased budget shames Putrajaya — Chong
KUCHING: Praises of Barisan Nasional ( BN) leaders on the development biased state Budget 2018 ‘is a slap on the face of the federal government’, said Chong Chieng Jen ( DAP-Kota Sentosa) yesterday.
The state opposition leader noted that 70 per cent of the state budget was set aside for development expenditure compared to only 16 per cent in the national budget.
“It is a good proportion when it comes to state budget with 70 per cent for development expenditure and 30 per cent for ordinary expenditure.
“Your ( BN leaders’) praises for the state budget is also a slap to the federal government. The national budget tabled by your big brother ( prime minister) had only 16 per cent for development.
“And you are part of that administration. So you can praise all you want on the state budget but your praises are a slap on the face of national budget,” he said when debating the state Budget 2018 yesterday.
Chong said ‘common Sarawakians and people on the streetsaresufferingfromescalating costs of living caused by GST (goods and services tax), depreciation of ringgit and inflation’ despite the announcement of billions of ringgit of allocation and projects. He was quick to add that the recent spate of fuel price hike was another factor that people struggled to meet in the rising cost of living.
“You may say that it (fuel price hike) is the doing of the federal government but BN won’t be the government if not for the state BN. So you (state BN) are an accomplice.”
Quoting a study conducted by the World Bank, he pointed out that the disposable income of Malaysians ‘is shrinking’.
The World Bank data showed that the gross national income (GNI) per capita of Malaysia had dropped in 2015 and last year, he said.
Quoting the same data, he said the GNI per capita of Malaysia was US$10,150 in 2012 followed by US$10,760 (2013), US$11,000 (2014), US$ 10,440 ( 2015) and US$ 9,850 (2016).
“Therefore, this shows that the disposable incomes of our people are shrinking. And BN Sarawak is an accomplice to such a great disservice to the people of Sarawak,” he added.
Chong also alleged that RM1.399 billion allocated for the trust account for agencies approved by the government had been unaccounted for. He added that there was another RM665 million special fund that was also not accountable to the State Legislative Assembly at all.
“Forty per cent of the RM5 billion development fund, which is more than RM2 billion can be considered as slush fund. This is not good accounting, not transparent practice,” he said.
He then showed a copy of The Borneo Post dated Oct 29 which front paged Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong for saying that the RM1 billion granted by Putrajaya is far from enough to repair and rebuild dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
Worse still, Chong said state BN leaders had repeatedly said that the RM1 billion would be used over the next two years.
“Which means that you are getting only RM500 million in 2018 and you actually need RM4 billion to deal with all the dilapidated schools. And all BN leaders in Sarawak have nothing to say but praises for (Prime Minister Datuk Seri) Najib (Tun Razak). That says it all.
“Manyin complained about insufficient fund for dilapidated schools, but what have your MPs done in Parliament?” he asked.