File photo of the Parliament Building in Taman Duta. Bernama Photo
KUCHING: Batang Sadong MP Dato Sri Nancy Shukri is worried that Sarawak will lose out in development funding after Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Azmin Ali declared in Parliament that Sarawak is not a poor state.
The Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) lawmaker said Azmin dared not term Sarawak as a poor state when responding to a question she raised in the legislative assembly recently.
She explained that Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Chong Chieng Jen had said 50 per cent of development funds would go to poor states but Azmin’s recent remark would mean that Sarawak would not get a share.
“In Parliament, Azmin said we are not a poor state. So you see, this is the kind of government that we have,” she said when approached by journalists in a hotel here today.
“They said 50 per cent of the development funds to be given to five poor states. I’m just recalling what had been said by Chong,” she said.
Nancy, who is a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on state-federal relations, said such matter had been mentioned during past PSC meetings.
She said the PSC comprised members from not just the state ruling coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) but also opposition parties in Sarawak including Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
“Then I told the other MPs, make sure they give that 50 per cent to us, you don’t keep quiet. They said that we are a poor state, but Azmin dared not say that (in Parliament). You can refer to what I said in Parliament,” she added.
She said GPS leaders had been doing a lot of things despite some quarters having said that they did not do anything.
“I feel that some people are just thinking blindly. If you said we did not do anything, how about all the facilities we have in Sarawak here?
“You think it can come just like that, without us speaking in Parliament or during our meetings? For me, I manage to get the Batang Sadong Bridge. I keep mentioning that because I’m very proud of it and it’s not easy to get a big project like that,” she asserted.