State DAP thankful Adenan is open to suggestions
KUCHING: While Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem is trying to fulfill all the suggestions made by state DAP to win the hearts of the people, its state party chief Chong Chieng Jen hopes that the chief minister can keep up to their pace.
“We will continue to make suggestions beneficial to the people and hopefully, Adenan can keep up to our pace. It is quite easy for him to keep up to our pace because he has the full government machinery behind him,” he said.
Chong, who is Bandar Kuching MP, was asked to comment on Adenan’s increasing popularity among Sarawakians, especially the Chinese community after the chief minister has adopted many of the suggestions made by state DAP.
“He (Adenan) has delivered some on our call for reduction of electricity tariff, which he partially delivered because what we called for was 30 per cent reduction across the board,” Chong, who is also Kota Sentosa assemblyman, said.
Chong said the tariff reduction was only two to three per cent for those consuming RM100 and above, while those paying RM150 for their electricity bill would need to pay more than what they paid before after the introduction of goods and services tax (GST).
“We also called for the abolition of toll at Lanang Bridge which has also been delivered.”
He said in actual fact, there were many things that the party had suggested previously, but had yet to be delivered by the chief minister.
“They include the 20 per cent oil and gas royalty, Unified Examination Certificate ( UEC) recognition, open tender for government projects, Pan Borneo Highway and the privatisation of Sacofa Sdn Bhd.
“We also suggested for the alienation of state land via open tender but the chief minister has not done anything yet. I have also brought up the issue of 267 acres of state land opposite MJC Batu Kawah that was sold between 20 and 25 per cent of the market value. The agreement was signed nine days after he became chief minister.”
As far Adenan’s fight against illegal logging, Chong said he had yet to see any achievements thus far except for the substantial reduction in volume of illegal logs seized.
“In 2014, the total volume of illegal logs seized was 46,000 cubic metres. In the first quarter of this year, the total seized illegal logs were 2,600 cubic metres. If you multiply that by four, it will come to about 11,000 cubic metres.
“We don’t know whether the fight against illegal logging is losing steam already. The figures were given to me by the minister concerned during the State Legislative Assembly sitting.”
Chong said while there was a general sense of ‘ feel good’ due to the so called good announcement by the chief minister, the roots of the problems such as corruption, good governance and accountability had yet to be fulfilled.
“We will continue to pressure the government and make suggestions. One of which will be the free public transport system in Kuching for the initial five years, with the government spending about RM150 million for the first year, including the purchase of 300 new buses and the taking over of all existing bus companies.
“At the moment we have 100 buses. With the additional 300 new buses, that will increase the frequency and coverage of the public transport in Kuching by three times at least.”
Chong said from the second year onward, the government would have to spend less than RM50 million per year to operate the public transport, and the cost was derived based on the study on the operating expenditure of 100 buses multiplied by four due to the additional buses.
In explaining the five years’ free public transportation, he said the government needed to give commuters substantial benefits so that they could change their commuting habits, adding that a reliable public transport services in long run would have the city folk saving much on transportation.