Development not by accident — Manyin

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KUCHING: The federal government has allocated RM7 billion for road construction in Sarawak since 2009 and the projects will be completed by 2012.

Dato Sri Michael Manyin

Almost all Bidayuh villages will have roads, electricity and water by the end of this year.

And almost all Bidayuhs have access to education, clinics, hospitals and other amenities as they are living in the periphery of major urban  centres such as Kuching, Bau, Lundu, Kota Sentosa, Siburan and Serian.

All these development and allocation do not happen by accident but are planned properly by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, said Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications Dato Sri Michael Manyin.

He was responding to an allegation made by the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) that the Bidayuh community has been marginalised by the government.

PKR also alleged that the federal government has not allocated enough funds to Sarawak for its development.

Manyin said the opposition, especially the PKR was either blind or deaf as they could not see and hear what was going on around them.

“I would like to challenge them to come up with a concrete plan as to how they will develop the state. There is no point in just talking but without any action,” Manyin told The Borneo Post at his office at Bangunan Baitukmakmur here yesterday.

Manyin, who is also Tebedu assemblyman, stressed that there has been vast transformation taking place among the Bidayuhs in the last 47 years.

He said in the 50s and 60s even though most Bidayuh families were hard working farmers planting as many as three acres of padi, but after harvesting they hardly had enough to eat.

“But now there are no more Bidayuhs who have nothing to eat. On top of that, almost every family owns a car or motorcycle. This is definitely development and not mere rhetoric,” he said.

Manyin said the Bidayuhs have at least between four to five per cent of graduates out of the population of 200,000.

He added that many of the community’s professionals were now working as civil servants.

“And as far as politics is concerned, 2010 has been kind to our community as three of our elected representatives were appointed either as an assistant minister or deputy federal ministers,” said Manyin.

Datuk Peter Nansian Ngusie was appointed as Assistant Minister of Environment and both Dato Dr James Dawos Mamit (Deputy Minister of Tourism) and Datuk Richard Riot Jaem (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs) have been appointed to the federal cabinet recently.

“This goes to show that even though the Bidayuhs only have six state seats and three parliamentary seats, we have one full state minister, one assistant minister and two deputy ministers.

“So how could the PKR alleged that our community has been marginalised?” he asked.

As a matter of argument, Manyin, who is also the vice president of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), said the government could achieve at least between seven to eight on the scale of one to ten in terms of overall development.

“Given the fact that we have been one of the poorest states in the 60s, now we are among the top achievers.

“And also, despite our state’s physical size which is almost as big as Peninsular Malaysia and with scattered and small population, we have actually done pretty well,” Manyin added.

Manyin also gave credit to Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, saying he had transformed Sarawak by leaps and bounds since he took office in 1981.

On the RM7 billion for roads in Sarawak, he said the details are: 163 road projects (30 projects to be implemented by the Drainage and Irrigation Department and 133 projects by JKR) under the National Key Result Area (NKRA) worth RM2 billion, RM4 billion for the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) road projects and another RM1 billion allocation under the stimulus package.

“All these roads would be completed by 2012,” he said.

On Wednesday, at  a media conference held at the Public Works Department office, Manyin said overtaking lanes costing RM100 million between Miri and Serian had been identified and submitted to the federal government for consideration under the Tenth Malaysian Plan.

He also said that another RM70 million was required to repair aged federal roads in the Bintulu and Miri divisions, and that a proposal on this would be presented to the Ministry of Works for consideration.