KUCHING: Pakan assemblyman Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom is aghast that the state constituency tops the list of the seven poorest districts in the country.
The former Sarawak Social Development Minister disputed the findings of the survey carried out by the Rural and Regional Development Ministry which put the district at the top of the list.
“Pakan residents and I myself were shocked and ashamed of the findings of the national survey that Pakan topped the list.
“As for me, the findings might or might not be correct because it was a random survey, thus it is not fair to say Pakan is the poorest district in Malaysia,” he said when interviewed on the Cats FM radio station here.
Mawan added that the reality was that the district now had 98 per cent electricity coverage while 60 per cent of the settlements received clean water supply.
Thus, he invited Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun and economic analyst Assoc Prof Dr Madeline Berma to come and see for themselves the actual situation in Pakan, which a newspaper had reported Rina as revealing that average household income in Pakan stood at a mere RM2,760 a month.
Pakan had the districts of Lubok Antu, Song, Kanowit, Selangau, Simunjan and Daro (all in Sarawak) for company. — Bernama