Lukanisman Awang Sauni
KUCHING: Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni believes that there is nothing new in the proposal of Budget 2019 for Sarawak.
“As an MP from Sarawak I feel that the 2019 Budget does not pay much attention to Sarawak and does not support the cries for equality in regional development.
“Although education ministries receive the largest allocation, most of the funds allocated are the continuity from the previous foundation and just some little improvements. I am disappointed with the allocation of the school without any specific details for the Sarawak region although the problem of school is a big issue in Sarawak,” said Lukanisman to The Borneo Post today.
In terms of allocation, Sabah is being added another RM1 billion while Sarawak is getting almost the same amount as they did in the 2018 budget, he asserted.
“So I think the federal government does not understand the needs of Sarawak. The budget presentation also did not give new offers to the Sarawakians but instead it is only re-branding the existing assistance programmes and funds.
“In general, the federal government insists on being prudent and saving through the cancellation of mega projects.
“Yet, I still do not see the spirit of equality championed by Sarawak as enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963, and i seems that the dilapidated schools and clinics issues and the lack of teachers are not being looked into accordingly,” he said.
However on the bright side of things, the PH government’s first budget did see the continuation of a booster for the local tourism scenes in Sarawak as Lim stated earlier today that 50 per cent of tourism tax earned by a state would be returned o the state.
This was the same for the previous government.
Additionally, Lukanisman detailed that the budget also saw other positives like the he continuation of Bantuan Sara Hidup (previously known as BR1M) which is expected to alleviate the burden of the rising cost of living in our bottom 40 per cent income bracket.