BARU Bian (PKR-Ba Kelalan) has called on the government to step up their enforcement efforts and investigate whether the police are involved in criminal activities in Lawas.
Baru, who is state PKR chairman, said he was shocked to hear from one of the participants of an Anti-Drugs Day on Sept 13 in Lawas, who proposed that ‘all police personnel must be transferred from Lawas’ if they want to fight the drugs problem there.
“That is the voice of the people in Lawas. That is probably a very sweeping statement because I know there are many good and disciplined police personnel in the country and even in Lawas.
“But, there could be some truth in that statement because it came from the people who knew the situation on the ground,” he said when debating on the Supply Bill (2015) yesterday.
Baru was also pleased that the august house had unanimously voted on Tuesday to support the motion moved by Annuar Rapa’ee (BN-Nangka) to support continuous efforts by the government to reduce the crime rate in this country.
“I have read some unofficial statistics showing Lawas having the highest crime rate in the state. I request an official reply from the minister if this is true or not.
“I have in the past sittings of this august house raised our peoples’ concern about the issue of syabu and drug abuse and car theft and smuggling across the border with Kalimantan.”
“The Lun Bawang church community of Lawas are so worried about the drug abuse problem that they recently formed a committee to organise anti-drugs programme.”
Baru noted the Auditor General’s revelation that YTL Communication Sdn Bhd was fined RM2.4 million for failing to provide all 10,000 schools with the 1BestariNet e-learning project and that less than five per cent of school children nationwide were using the facility.
“It appears that the 1BestariNet project is a failure and a waste of taxpayers’ money. Some schools in Ba Kelalan have been connected but with very poor connectivity while others are still waiting to be connected.”
He also wished to know the reason why the new building for SK Long Sukang could not be utilised although it has been completed for quite sometimes.
It would be a waste of resources to build a school and not use it.
Baru also urged the Women and Family Development Ministry to allocate funds to repair or rebuild the many dilapidated schools in his constituency such as SK Long Semadoh, SRK Ba Kelalan, SK Long Tukon, SK Tang Lapadan, SK Bario and SK Pa Dalih.
He said in the case of SK Long Semadoh, some of the floors of the building were in danger of collapsing and therefore, wanted to know if anything had been done to remedy the problem.
“I have been informed that the solar project in Long Sukang has been completed but it is yet to be commissioned. I wish to know the reason for the delay.”