Lo (seated fourth left) and his councillors at the media conference yesterday.
KUCHING: Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) views the electricity tariff campaign mounted by the DAP as the worst ever endeavour by the party in the state.
MPP chairman Lo Khere Chiang said the campaign was misleading and it reflected the desperation of the party for political mileage.
He added that the DAP was trying to hoodwink the public into believing that the state’s power tariff needed to be reduced when it was already the lowest in the country.
“They should display their commitment by showing that they can reduce the tariff in Penang and Selangor first.
“Let me reiterate that the tariff in Sarawak is the cheapest in the country and one of the lowest in the region. The government has done so much to ensure that the tariff remain stable in the state,” Lo told reporters after chairing MPP’s full council meeting yesterday.
He opined that reducing electricity tariff would be unfair to Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), which has some 4,000 employees.
“In ignorance, DAP recently quoted Canada as one of the countries that offer lower tariff than Sarawak, but what they failed to understand is that Canada is one of the super hydropower producers in the world.
“Canada is the world’s third largest producer of hydroelectricity after China and Brazil. They have approximately 475 hydroelectric generating plants across the country producing an average of 355 terawatt hours per year. One hour represents enough electricity to heat and power 40,000 houses.”
Lo added that Canada started hydropower development in the 1800s and their plants could generate over 70,000MW of hydropower, while Sarawak only has three dams – Bakun, Murum, and Batang Ai – with combined capacity of slightly over 3,000MW.
“As the DAP loves to put it in percentage, it is just four per cent of Canada’s hydropower generation.”
He said the study on tariffs in North America confirmed that hydropower delivered the lowest possible prices to consumers.
“Specifically, the lowest prices in North America are found in areas with access to bulk hydropower. This validates the state government’s policy to develop Sarawak’s hydropower resources and these are the facts that we feel the public should know rather than taking on-the-surface information provided by DAP to mislead them.”
Lo said he believed the real intention of the DAP in fighting for tariff reduction was nothing more than to stoke the feelings of the public that the government was unfair.
“To them nothing is fair, but I am sure the people are wise enough to understand the political game that the DAP is playing here. They (DAP) don’t mind putting the wellbeing of the people and the state as a whole at stake.”
Meanwhile, SUPP Youth secretary-general Councillor Wilfred Yap, who was also present, said DAP elected representatives in the state should learn from the problems faced by Pakatan Rakyat-ruled states.
He said the water issue in Selangor was the best example that Pakatan Rakyat-led government was incapable and incompetent in solving the people’s problem.
“They put the blame on the weather when in actual fact they failed to put in place the infrastructure to provide adequate water storage. Before they took over the government they promised to give free water tariff, but now they can’t even ensure enough supply of treated water.
“This is one of the best examples DAP can learn from instead of asking for lower tariff in order to get cheap publicity.”