Baru Bian
KUCHING: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) assemblymen and assemblywomen must not be too fast in making conclusions or rather presumptuous in alleging that the elected representatives in the new Federal Government have not acted in the best interest of Sarawak when it comes to matters affecting Sarawak.
Ba Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian said that only time will prove whether they would fare better than their predecessors.
He assured that as a new cabinet Minister in the new PH Government, he and his colleagues are ready to work together with the Sarawak Government to implement any projects that are beneficial for the people in Sarawak.
Baru, who is Minister of Works, noted that it was heartening to know that after 55 years, the leaders in the Sarawak government have finally realised and acknowledged the real situation of Sarawak and Sarawakians.
He said it is not too late to admit that the people in Sarawak are left far behind from the rest of the country.
“However, the irony of this situation is that the GPS politicians conveniently overlook the fact that this is the legacy created by their own former best friends (UMNO/Barisan Nasional) of which GPS had been part of for the last 55 years.
Our schools did not become dilapidated overnight, nor did the roads linking the town with rural villages in the State suddenly become inadequate since PH won the elections, but they had been neglected over the past 55 years.
“If only the GPS leaders had woken up earlier and had been wise and bold enough to speak up to their UMNO and BN masters, Sarawak would perhaps not be in such dire straits,” he said when debating on the State Budget 2019.
Baru pointed out that in the Chief Minister’s budget speech and in the comments by other GPS leaders after the Federal budget was tabled, a common theme was the lamentation that Sarawak has not been given enough allocations by the PH Federal government.
He said these commentators did not want to concede that the new government is only six months old and have had to grapple with crippling debts incurred by the man hailed by the same GPS leaders only a year ago as the ‘best ever’ Prime Minister for Sarawak.
He said the legacy of mismanagement, theft and debt inherited from the BN government, of which the GPS members were a part, is truly mind-blowing in its astronomical amount.
“GPS members had chosen to stay quiet in the face of mounting criticism and revelations about the appalling greed and arrogance of the previous Prime Minister and the members of his government, especially in the 1MDB scandal.
“Any complaints that GPS have now about the sorry state of Sarawak and the perceived lack of allocation are in fact reflections of their own complicity in this country’s past and history,” he said.
Baru lamented that 55 years after the formation of Malaysia, Sarawakians are sailing on unchartered waters.
He said PH has formed the new Federal government and the former BN parties, now renamed GPS, find themselves as an opposition State in the nation.
“If our common goal is good governance for the benefit and betterment of our citizens, then we should set our minds and efforts on the huge task at hand.
“I hope that the Sarawak government will be able to deliver on the ambitious plans set out in the Budget 2019 so that the living standard of Sarawakians may finally be able to start approaching that of our cousins in Peninsula Malaysia,” he said.