KUCHING: The previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) government should not be blamed entirely for failing to construct the RM848-million Batang Lupar bridge.
The failure should also be borne by the current Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, said Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) southern zone deputy publicity chief (Chinese), Siaw Min Kin.
He said the PH government should take responsibility and bear the blame, but it should not be 100 per cent carrying the responsibility on their shoulders.
“In fact, the GPS/BN government should bear the bulk of the blame and responsibility.
“For 57 years, Sungai Batang Lupar has been there. GPS government knew the problem, the difficulties and dangers faced by the people staying on the opposite side of the river who use the ferry daily crossing the river. Providing ferry service is a temporary measure and a long term solution is needed.
“It is easy to point fingers and push the blame to the PH government when a tragedy happened and start playing the blame game,” he said.
Siaw was responding to a statement by Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Youth Central secretary-general Milton Foo, who blamed the previous PH government for terminating the RM848-million Batang Lupar bridge project.
Siaw questioned BN/GPS that has been in the government for the last 57 years and all along knew about the problem and yet did nothing about it.
“Why is the Batang Lupar bridge not built all these years when GPS/BN is in power?
“In fact, the GPS government should ask the federal government (BN at that time) to fund the whole cost of the project instead of 50/50 sharing before the PH took over the government,” he said.
He claimed that the federal government is taking a huge sum of money from Sarawak daily.
“Just the oil and gas (O&G) alone, Sarawak produces 850,000 barrels a day as confirmed by the former Petronas president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin.
“At today’s price of US$50 per barrel, Sarawak produces US$42.5 million a day, that is RM175 million per day (RM5.25 billion per month or RM63 billion a year). The federal government is taking from Sarawak RM63 billion a year just on O&G alone. What about our other resources, port charges, customs taxes, property taxes and other taxes collected from Sarawak?
“Is there a commitment and priority by the GPS government to build this bridge in the first place? If so, then why was the bridge not built for so long?” he asked.
He also said within a short period, the GPS government under Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg had announced projects worth billions; namely the Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) at RM6 billion, the Hydrogen Bus project and the Hydrogen Gas production and maintenance facility could run into the millions, the Second Trunk Road (STR) at RM6 billion, among others.
“If the GPS government can spend such a huge sum on these projects, then why not allocate RM848 million to build the Batang Lupar bridge?” he said.
Besides that, he added, GPS supported Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) to form a ‘back door government’ on March 1, 2020.
“They were boasting to all Sarawakians about their new found power as kingmaker, then why not exercise this power now to force Muhyiddin to pay for the total cost of RM946 million for the Batang Lupar bridge and the Batang Rambungan bridge than for Sarawakians to bear the total cost.
“Then use the RM946 million saved to build other bridges in other rivers where there are ferry crossings. GPS government should practise what they preach. If not, the people will lose faith in them,” he said.