KUCHING: State PKR information chief Vernon Aji Kedit has chided several state Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders for undermining the party’s ‘20-point Roadmap for a New Sarawak’.
In responding to SPDP senior vice president Datuk Paul Igai who said there was no need for the roadmap as the state already has a very progressive chief minister, Vernon said the “less travelled” Paul expected Sarawakians to submissively accept it as a backwater state “festered with corruption and riddled with bad governance”.
“I have news for him; many Sarawakians are well travelled and have compared Sarawak with the rest of the developed world. We have had enough of BN and are now looking to PKR which promises a world-class Sarawak, nothing less.
“Sarawak is blessed with the resources and wealth to achieve world class status but unfortunately we have been robbed and denied for 53 years. Paul should travel more and see for himself what world class means,” he said in a press statement yesterday.
Replying to Assistant Minister of Local Government Datuk John Sikie who said “it is BN that is proven and can bring development especially now”, Vernon said development is the main function and responsibility of any and every democratically elected government, not an option.
“Even Communist China is able to bring development and more to its people. BN should make available more than just basic development, but even basic civil infrastructure, clean water and electricity are still lacking in 70 per cent of the state. In John Sikie’s own constituency, the level of development is far behind and he has the gall to talk about development?”
Vernon, who is also PKR Betong branch chairman, also shot back at state BN and PBB secretary-general Datuk Dr Stephen Rundi Utom, stating that the latter’s outburst was a strong indicator that PBB is beginning to show that it is now rattled by PKR’s rapidly growing strength in the urban and now rural areas.
Dr Rundi in his statement said he did not expect anything from a party like PKR which is uncertain about its own roadmap and doubtful future.
Vernon said PKR is bringing and offering real change and is ready to govern, while PBB has only “perfected the art of stealing our ideas like the 20 per cent oil royalty increase which was stated first in PKR’s Manifesto in 2011. Then again, it would be asking too much to expect dinosaurs to come up with a 21st century world class vision for our beloved state”.