Devolution of power without integrity, transparency worrying — Rep
KUCHING: Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei is concerned about the devolution of autonomy to Sarawak government, which he claims does not uphold integrity and transparency in governance.
The Sarawak Democratic Action Party Socialist Youth (Dapsy) chairman said it puzzled him when Sarawak government talked about wanting to regain autonomy, but was sidelining transparency and clean governance.
“Autonomy works well only with transparency and clean governance. When we talk about autonomy, it is not just about rights but also about the rights that come with power. When we talk about power, greater power comes with greater responsibility.
“It occurs to me that every time Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) talks about autonomy, it is in fact trying to boost its chances of winning elections.
“I always get this uneasy feeling when transparency and clean governance are not mentioned when they talk about autonomy,” he said in a press statement yesterday.
According to Wong, the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-led government is determined to return 20 per cent of oil and gas royalty and 50 per cent of taxes collected from Sarawak to the Sarawak government – adding that the additional 15 per cent of oil and gas royalty and 50 per cent of additional collected taxes given to Sarawak would be equivalent to at least RM6.5 billion.
Sarawak is now getting five per cent of oil and gas royalty a year.
“How do we quantify the additional RM6.5 billion annually to Sarawak? It is worth noting that the annual budget of Sarawak is only about RM6 billion.
“What Sarawakians should be more concerned about is how the Sarawak government is going to use the extra money when it comes in,” he said.
Wong said the PH federal government practises transparency and accountability at all level of government authorities.
On the contrary, the Sarawak government seems to continue the Umno-style of governance, he charged.
“Parcels of Sarawak land are alienated to cronies at a meagre price of RM300 per acre; ministers or government officials and their family members are actively involved in business; mega government projects are awarded through direct negotiations and not through open tenders; monopoly in various fields such as the supply of cement and the erection of telecommunication towers – all seems to be the norm.
“Certain quarters who are supporting PH are victimised because the Sarawak government no longer grants them government projects (and) no allocation for opposition assemblymen; but the federal government grants allocation to BN MPs, wastage of public funds for unnecessary mega projects such as the building of dams and the construction of Light Rail Transit (LRT), to benefit the cronies.”
Wong said with such ‘track record’, he was worried that the additional RM6.5 billion to Sarawak would benefit only Sarawak BN leaders and their cronies, instead of Sarawakians at large.
He said people could easily notice how Sarawak’s resources had been benefitting the selected ones, while leaving many Sarawakians in poverty.
Apart from the 20 per cent of oil and gas royalty and 50 per cent of taxes collected in Sarawak, Wong said the federal government is also determined to devolve the autonomy in education and health to Sarawak.
He could not help but wonder how such autonomous rights to Sarawak could be handed to the Sarawak government.
Wong believed that all talks about autonomy would not bring any good to Sarawakians, if BN Sarawak continued to rule the ‘Land of the Hornbills’.
“Without overthrowing Sarawak BN, all talks about autonomy would only end up expediting the exhaustion of Sarawak’s resources and money,” he added.