Lim Wei Peng
MIRI (July 6): Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) has slammed the state Democratic Action Party (DAP) for portraying the cancellation of three proposed bridges as a “re-planning exercise”.
SUPP Youth Central committee member Lim Wei Peng said the real issue was that the federal government failed to honour its original commitment and regardless of how DAP Sarawak tried to play down the cancellation, the undeniable fact remained that the state government ultimately financed the projects with its own funds.
He said that while the recent statement by DAP Sarawak claiming the projects were re-planned may sound convincing on the surface, it failed to focus on the core issue.
“What truly concerns Sarawakians has never been whether the projects were labelled as cancelled or re-planned, or what they were eventually renamed.
“The real question is a simple one—if the federal government’s commitment had never changed, why did the Sarawak government ultimately have to finance these projects with its own funds?” he asked in a statement.
Lim said DAP Sarawak repeatedly argued that the three bridges were later incorporated into the Sarawak-Sabah Link Road (SSLR) and therefore were never cancelled, but pointed out they deliberately avoided addressing the more important issue that the construction cost was eventually borne by the state government.
He also argued that the biggest flaw in their narrative was that it conditioned people to believe Sarawak could only have either the three bridges or the SSLR.
“But why should Sarawak have to choose? Why can’t we have both?”
He added that if the federal government had honoured its original commitment, it could have completed the three bridges as initially planned.
“The Sarawak government would have been able to channel its own resources towards building more hospitals, schools, rural roads, flood mitigation projects and other development initiatives.
“This would have meant two separate streams of development resources benefitting Sarawak instead of transferring what was originally a federal responsibility onto the shoulders of the state government,” he said.
Lim said that Sarawakians should not focus on whether the projects were renamed or restructured, but on the fact that Sarawak had diverted its own financial resources to ensure the critical infrastructure projects continued.
“Every ringgit spent by the Sarawak government on these projects is a ringgit that could have otherwise been invested in other public development priorities. That is the real opportunity cost borne by Sarawakians.”