SARAWAK is a very rich state, with about RM31 billion in its financial reserves.
Minus a billion ringgit or two from its coffers believed to be used during the recent 12th state election, the Sarawak government still possesses a lot of money.
The money should be used to deal with urgent problems in the state that are affecting a huge segment of the population.
Floods remain one of the biggest issues plaguing Sarawakians year after year stretching to decades.
Recently, Progressive Democratic Party president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing waded through the waist-level floods in the Sibu district to witness the devastation for himself.
Tiong, like his predecessors, said that financial allocations will be sought from both the state government and the federal government in an effort to address the situation over the long term.
The involvement of both state and federal ministries is crucial to mitigate the flood woes in Sarawak.
It is good to see Tiong getting to the root cause of the flood problems.He is right in pointing out that these problems had affected the rakyat for too long and must be overcomed.
The sad truth is issues involving poor drainage, bad irrigation systems, siltation of rivers and waterways have been happening for so long because the state government had refused to allocate big allocations to solve them.
Oftentimes, state ministers and politicians will tell the affected residents that they are awaiting allocations from the federal government.
Why push the matter to Putrajaya when Kuching has more than enough funds at its disposal?
During the 12th state election last month, the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government dug deep into the state’s financial coffers to dish out millions of ringgit for disbursement during the campaign period.
If the GPS government is able to do so for election campaigning, they ought to utilise state reserves to ensure that floods situation can be mitigated for the next 20 to 50 years for the rakyat in urban and rural Sarawak.
It doesn’t matter who is in charge, the government of the day should learn how to utilise the state’s money wisely to alleviate the rakyat’s suffering.
Stop pushing every responsibility to the federal government. – The Vibes, January 23, 2022
