Use your brain, Foo tells Chong

KUCHING: It is a huge disappointment that Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Chong Chieng Jen has suggested that the Sarawak government uses its reserve to repair and upgrade dilapidated schools in the state.

Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Youth secretary Milton Foo, said Chong, who is Stampin MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, knew better that education is placed under the Federal List.

He said Chong should ‘use his brain’ before coming up with the proposal, because he is a Sarawakian and the people of Sarawak voted for him to speak up for them.

“How can he, as a deputy minister, utter a statement like this, knowing that education is the obligation of the federal government?

“He should not push the responsibility just because Sarawak has big reserves and rich in resources. It is not an excuse for the federal government,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

Chong reportedly told the august House that Sarawak government should use its RM34 billion reserves to repair and upgrade dilapidated schools in Sarawak.

He likened Chong’s suggestion to a couple supporting their family; that while the husband worked and the wife a homemaker, he told his wife to use their savings for the family expenditure, tuition fees for the children, electricity bills and transportation fees.

“Does this make sense? Please use your brain,” Foo told Chong.

He said Sarawakians were waiting for Chong to explain why Sarawak did not get the 30 per cent share of the National Budget 2019, which he promised to fight for before the Budget was tabled earlier this month.