Give serious commitment to develop S’wak, PH govt urged
MIRI: The Pakatan Harapan ( PH) government is urged to seriously commit to the development of Sarawak including the construction of the long- overdue Pan Borneo Highway up to Sabah.
Piasau assemblyman Datuk Sebastian Ting said the highway was a dream of Sarawkians and Sabahans since the formation of Malaysia. Other than connecting communities along the route, it would also lead to many economic spin- offs for Sarawak and Sabah.
“We sincerely hope that the Pakatan Harapan government is seriously committed to the development of Sarawak.
“It would be a great disappointment if excuses were given to delay the building of the Pan Borneo Highway in Sarawak,” said Ting in a statement received here yesterday.
He was commenting on news report on Monday quoting Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad saying ‘ the government was committed to continue the implementation of the highway even though it may be delayed’.
Ting, also secretary general of Sarawak United People’s Party ( SUPP), said there was much joy and relief in Sarawak when the Sarawak leg of the project started in 2016.
“Therefore, it is a surprise when the prime minister mentioned there would be a delay in completion for the Sabah- portion of the project,” Ting said.
Dr Mahathir said investigation would be carried out to find out where the huge amount of funds had gone to.
Ting said Phase 1 of the Sarawak- leg of the project, involving 1,060km would be completed in 2021 at an estimated cost of RM16.488 billion. About 193km have been completed and the rest in progress.
“We hope there will be no excuses given to delay the work in Sarawak as all works seem to be progressing well.
“Dr Mahathir has been in the Cabinet for more than 30 years with 22 years as prime minister. During that time he had the opportunity to help Sarawak but nothing was done to start the Pan Borneo Highway,” Ting said.
Ting added that massive amount of revenue from oil and gas is taken from Sarawak, but was used instead to build and improve infrastructure in Peninsular Malaysia.
“Minister of Works, Baru Bian, has gave an assurance that the Pan Borneo Highway would proceed as planned, and that work was progressing according to schedule. We pray that he will steer this project towards its planned completion,” Ting said.
Meanwhile, SUPP vicepresident and Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin concurred with Ting on the need of the PH government to honour all its promises to bring development to Sarawak.
“The Pan Borneo Highway has been approved by the previous government. I have yet to get official updated details and thus I cannot comment more except to say that the federal government should allocate more funds to build roads in Sarawak.
“Sarawak badly needs infrastructure, especially roads, because we are far behind Peninsular Malaysia,” Lee said during a site visit to a road resurfacing project in Kuala Baram yesterday.