Abdullah Saidol
KUCHING: Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Abdullah Saidol has lashed out out Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen for alleging that the Sarawak government did not give priority to repairing dilapidated schools.
He criticised Chong’s statement as one of his “frequent attempts to blame others, manipulating the facts and confusing the people”.
“The Sarawak government is using its own funding and this proves the GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) state government’s sincerity in providing the infrastructural needs of all Sarawakians,” he said in a statement today.
He was responding to Chong, who at a press conference here yesterday, asked why the Sarawak government could not allocate funds for the repair and maintenance of dilapidated schools while it had done so for other development projects.
Abdullah said the fact that the PH federal government had cancelled quite a number of development projects in Sarawak showed that Sarawakians were “victimised” by the PH government.
He said it was the Sarawak government’s willingness to settle the state loan in advance that provided the federal government the funds to finance the repair work of dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
“Ironically Chong asked why the Sarawak government did not prioritise dilapidated school projects in Sarawak. Did Chong forget or avoid the fact that education falls under the Federal List?
“If all federal responsibilities are to be borne by Sarawak government, then why does Sarawak need to pay all the taxes to the federal government?” asked Abdullah.
He said Chong’s statement, which he termed as “arrogant” went to show that Chong intended to defend and cover up the shortcomings of his political master in Malaya, especially the Minister of Finance.
Abdullah claimed that the minister has “obviously failed to manage our nation financial affairs, causing our economy to get worse”.
“Our national debt is increasing. If this continues, the people will face a terrible inflation. PH promises us all ‘Malaysia Baru’ but what actually happens now is that PH is bringing this nation towards ‘Kerosakan Baru'”, he said.