Fadillah chides Chong for misleading claims on DE disbursement

KUCHING: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) parliamentary chief whip Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof calls on Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen to stop acting like ‘ snake oil salesman’ to justify the Budget 2020’s Development Expenditure (DE) for Sabah and Sarawak.

Fadillah said that Chong, as a son of Borneo, must fight for 30 per cent ( or RM16.8 billion) of the RM56 billion under the Development Expenditure (DE) of the Budget 2020 to be allocated to Sabah and Sarawak.

Fadillah also called on Chong to also insist that Sabah and Sarawak get 20 per cent oil royalty and 50 per cent of tax revenues collected from Sabah and Sarawak .

“As a son of Sarawak, Chong must stop colluding and conspiring with the Federal Government to help them justify why Sabah and Sarawak should not get what was promised as per the manifesto. A promise is a promise. As a son of Borneo, Chong must fight for us,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Chong, who is also Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs and Stampin MP, had earlier issued a statement saying that both Sabah and Sarawak are actually getting a combined 31.9 per cent from the statespecific amounts from the DE of the Budget 2020

RM30.1 billion of the RM56 billion provided under the DE are state specific while the remaining RM25.9 billion is for general application across the country.

“Out of this RM30.1 billion DE, Sabah and Sarawak are allocated a total RM9.6 billion, thus making up to 31.9 per cent, with Sarawak getting 14.95 per cent and Sabah getting 16.94 per cent.

“This is in line with the promise of Pakatan Harapan manifesto which promised to allocate 30 per cent of the DE to Sabah and Sarawak,” Chong had claimed.

Fadillah said that if If Chong is not a snake oil salesman, then he (Chong) should not act like one to collude and conspire with the peninsular based Federal Government to justify their inability to meet their promises and deprive of Sarawak and Sabah their rightful and promised allocations in Budget 2020.

In his statement yesterday, Chong claimed that RM9.6 billion (Sarawak RM 4.5 billion, Sabah RM5.1 billion) is equivalent to 31.9 per cent of the total development budget of RM56 billion in Budget 2020 - hence this fulfilled Harapan’s manifesto promise of 30 per cent of all development budget.

“Chong justifies this ridiculous calculation by claiming that Sabah and Sarawak must also bear a share of the RM25.9 billion development budget that is not directly allocated to Sabah and Sarawak as he claims that Sabah and Sarawak also benefit from this.

This is not what was promised by Pakatan Harapan.

“A 30 per cent share of development expenditure of RM56 billion for Sabah and Sarawak does not work out to be RM9.6 billion. It should be RM16.8 billion - not RM9.6 billion,” said Fadilah, who is also Petra Jaya MP and former works minister in the previous Barisan Nasional government.

Fadilah also said that Sabah and Sarawak do not get anything from the Federal government allocation to reduce toll rates in peninsular Malaysia which is expected to cost billions, as the previous BN government which GPS was a part of had made sure that all tolls in Sarawak has been eliminated.

“Neither do we benefit from the ECRL, the MRT2, the LRT3 and other projects in peninsular Malaysia funded by the Federal Government.

So for DAP to suggest that Sabah and Sarawak should also bear a part of those allocations is ridiculous,” he said.