More Sarawak federal ministers or no GST — choice seems obvious — Chong

KUCHING: The Democratic Action Party (DAP) candidate for Stampin parliamentary constituency Chong Chieng Jen feels that the choice is quite ‘obvious’ when it comes between the number of federal ministers and Goods and Services Tax (GST).

In this regard, he believes that Sarawakians would be willing to go for a ‘trade-off’ – forgoing the number of federal ministers in exchange for no GST.

Prior to the dissolution of Parliament, Pakatan Harapan (PH) unveiled its election manifesto where the abolishment of the GST was among its pledges.

“Would they (Sarawakians) rather have six federal ministers and pay GST, or one minister without GST (instead)?” he said in a phone interview yesterday.

Chong – the chairman of both PH Sarawak and DAP Sarawak – was prompted for comments on rival Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for Stampin, Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian, who ‘ridiculed’ the announcement made by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng here on Sunday about making Chong a federal minister should PH take over Putrajaya in this election.

“The question is whether Dr Sim could be a federal minister or not,” said Chong, pointing out that although BN Sarawak had six ministers in the federal cabinet, Sarawakians continued to pay GST.

“If we (PH) form the government, definitely there would be more than one (federal minister) from Sarawak. When Guan Eng announced that (on Sunday), he was announcing on behalf of DAP. Each party (within PH) would have their representatives in the cabinet – for the DAP’s share of minister, I would be one of them,” added Chong.