‘Only projects confirmed for works will be announced’
SIBU: Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee will only announce projects that have been confirmed for implementation in his constituency.
He said this is to prevent certain people from perceiving such announcements as ‘election projects’ with the aim to garner votes.
Dr Annuar reckoned this might be due to the fact that these projects were announced too early at the start but take a long time to implement.
“In actual fact, I do not want to announce any projects without getting confirmation from those responsible for the projects that they would be implemented.
“It is only when these projects have been confirmed for implementation that I will announce them,” he said here yesterday after a briefing session with Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) which was also attended by its deputy chairperson Rogayah Jamain and engineer Abdul Rahman.
Dr Annuar, who is also Assistant Minister of Housing and Public Health, pointed out that he also seldom announced the Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) projects.
“I don’t want to just announce and later, it takes a long time to implement (the project),” he said when asked to clarify a point he made during the briefing that he would not announce anymore projects after June this year.
“From June onwards – the implementation of projects that have been announced earlier will go full swing. I will closely monitor their development,” assured the Nangka assemblyman.
He added that there are many projects that have been listed out for his constituency but some have been announced as they have been confirmed for implementation.
“Any project still in the planning (stage) or in the process of getting approval from the relevant authority – that I don’t want to announce for the time being.”
“To avoid the perception that the projects were only implemented during election period – we need not announce projects when election is around the corner.
“We should announce them two to three years before the election (period) but implementation must be done before election and better still, (projects) completed before election,” he stressed adding this way, perceptions that they are ‘election projects’ will not arise at all.
“But I must put on record here that there are no such things as ‘election projects’. This is my second term as Nangka assemblyman and I only think about how to bring about development to benefit the people.
“Because if we only think about the five-year term or election then, we are not a leader at all. A leader is far-sighted and think 10 or 15 years ahead on how to bring development to the people. But there are some politicians who only think about their five-year term,” he said.