George Lo
KUCHING: Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) will continue the policy of granting Minor Rural Project (MRP) and Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) funds if it succeeds at forming the next state government, said PSB secretary general George Lo.
He dismissed the recent assertion of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) Youth that twisted PSB’s statement on MRP and RTP by saying that what PRS Youth had said was untrue.
“We refer to our earlier press release on the unfairness of the selective grants of MRP and RTP by the GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) government which effectively punishes those constituencies that did not vote a GPS candidate as ADUN (state assembly members).
“We are amused to read that PRS Youth has managed to twist our statement on MRP and RTP to come out with a totally false statement that PSB will abolish or cancel MRP if PSB is elected to form the next government of Sarawak.
“That is a complete fabrication if they had bothered to read our earlier press release,” he told a press conference at the PSB headquarters here today.
Lo stressed that PSB will not abolish MRP and RTP if it became the next Sarawak government.
“In fact, we have stated unequivocally that, if PSB forms the next government of Sarawak, we will give out MRP and RTP to all Sarawak state constituencies.
“If that is not clear enough for PRS, we state for the record that all constituencies mean from N.1 Opar to N.82 Bukit Sari – every single constituency will be given RTP and MRP regardless of whether the constituency is represented by a PSB ADUN or not.
“All the voters in every constituency is a son or daughter of Sarawak. Everyone is entitled to a fair share of Sarawak’s money. The voters in Opar, Padungan, Engkilili, Krian and others are all Sarawakians,” he asserted.
As such, Lo said it was unfair and unjust of the GPS government to deny the people of those constituencies a share of Sarawak’s wealth just because they did not vote for GPS or its earlier identity of Barisan Nasional (BN).
He wondered why GPS thought that the government’s funds belonged to GPS to dole out to areas that they favoured.
“Let us make it clear that PSB does not subscribe to that unjust way of thinking. The money belongs to the people, not to any political party.
“Those who get the grants need feel no gratitude to GPS. Those who are unfairly left out must question GPS why they are denied what is rightfully theirs,” he pointed out.
PSB opined that the money belonged to the people in Sarawak, regardless of their political inclination, he said.
As such, he added that everyone will get a share under a PSB government.
“PSB represents an alternative to the current GPS party in that our approach will be dictated solely by what is fair and equitable. We will never punish any voter that does not agree with us.
“If they don’t vote for us, we will do our level best to win them over but we will never punish anyone who decide to exercise his or her constitutional right to vote for some other party,” he said.
PSB is a fully independent Sarawak based party, according to Lo.
After the debacle in Putrajaya of the past weeks, and the decision by GPS to join hands with its former partners Umno and its new partner PAS to form the federal government, he said it was clear that “there is only one truly independent Sarawak party left and that is PSB”.
“It is for the voters of Sarawak to decide if they are happy with what they have got after more than 50 years under GPS/BN or to make a bold decision to say that they want a change for the better,” he added.