‘Sarawak govt never directed anyone to reject federal grants’

KUCHING: The Sarawak government has never instructed any Tuai Rumah or Ketua Kampung to reject or return any grant from the federal government.

In saying this, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing said he is not aware of any incident where any village chief was asked to return federal government grants.

“If there is any ( such case), I’m not aware of that and I don’t think it should be ( handled) in that way. That is why I say it is in the wrong spirit. Why would you want to reject their ( federal government) grant? They have a lot of money,” he told reporters after handing over minor rural project ( MRP) grants from the Sarawak government at his office in Bangunan Masja, here yesterday.

He was asked to comment on Pakatan Harapan ( PH) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen’s claim that the Sarawak government had directed all village chiefs to return all federal grants that they had received from the PH government.

If there is any (such case), I’m not aware of that and I don’t think it should be (handled) in that way. That is why I say it is in the wrong spirit. Why would you want to reject their (federal government) grant? They have a lot of money. Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing, Deputy Chief Minister

Masing, who is also Minister of Infrastructure Development and Transportation, suggested that any grant given by any government of the day, whether from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) or PH, should be accepted.

He said if the people had asked for and were given such federal grants, they should accept it.

“That’s how the spirit should be. That (returning of grant) is news to me,” he said, referring to the recent news of a village chief who supposedly returned a federal grant – allegedly on the instruction of the Kuching District Office.

When asked again if it was the state cabinet’s instruction to stop village chiefs from accepting federal grants, Masing said: “Not that I’m aware of. I’m very surprised if the state government does that. Why do you want to reject it when people want to give?”

On the distribution of his MRP grants, Masing said it was handed out to nongovernmental organisations ( NGO) regardless of affiliation.

“After all, we are Anak Sarawak. That is important. Hopefully, they will bear that in mind and consider us although we may be from different background or different political affiliation; it doesn’t matter. So long as they are Anak Sarawak, we will give (funds) to them.

“You know someone, a very senior person in PH, said a few weeks ago that because the people in Samarahan did not vote for PH, so she did not give the people assistance. It was mentioned. We should not fall into that category. Sarawak is slightly better than that,” he added.

Some 46 organisations received MRP funds amounting to RM459,500 from the Sarawak government, which Masing presented.

The funds are from Phase 3 of his MRP grants for this year.