2016 Sarawak Budget Speech

Tuan Speaker, thank you for giving me the chance to deliberate on the Sarawak budget 2016 tabled by the Chief Minister on the 7^th December 2015.

Tuan Speaker, the chief minister in his budget speech said that the 2016 allocation under the national budget to Sarawak is insufficient. I couldn’t agree more on this.

Tuan Speaker, the BN leaders, including those from the PBB, SUPP and the UPP all applauded the 2016 national budget presented by the PM when they were asked by the press. The DPM even said that it’s a Sarawak election budget, so there ought to be lots of goodies for Sarawak. But how come the CM is singing another tune in this Dewan?

Tuan Speaker, I am surprised by the CM as if the CM truly feels that the 2016 allocation for Sarawak is not sufficient, then why didn’t he said so when the 2016 budget was tabled by the PM and urged the PM to adjust the budget or else he will direct the Sarawak BN MPs to vote against the budget?

And if the CM is not happy about the national budget’s allocation for Sarawak, then why weren’t the federal ministers from Sarawak told to bring the matter to the attention of the PM? How many Sarawak federal ministers are there in the federal cabinet?

Were they sleeping?

Now that the Parliament has voted for the 2016 budget presented by the PM, what is the use of CM saying “tidak cukup”? Is it because he is putting up a show for Sarawakians now that the state election is just round the corner? The rational Sarawakians would see through the smoke screen and would make state BN pays for failing Sarawakians.

To put the record straight, while all the Sarawak DAP MPs, and actually all the DAP MPs in the House voted against the 2016 national budget, all the Sarawak BN MPs voted for the 2016 budget. The question Sarawakians need to ask is “who is selling off Sarawak interests?” The answer is pretty clear, Tuan Speaker, it is the state BN.

Tuan Speaker, Sarawakians believe that as long as BN remains in Putrajaya the development disparity between Sarawak and peninsular Malaysia will never be able to be bridged as BN is the perpetrator for the poor state of the affair of Sarawak. 

We need the state government to pay more than lips services if we want Sarawak to catch up with the peninsular, words like “tidak cukup” or “we also want Sarawak to have the same facilities as enjoyed by our brothers and sisters in peninsular Malaysia” by the CM are not enough although they sound nice and brave to some.

Sarawak must stand up to the federal BN government and not give in to them. We are where we are not only because of the federal BN’s unfair treatments but because the BN state government has allowed that to happen over the last 5 decades.

Sarawak BN state government even surrendered our special rights enshrined in the federal constitution and the M”sia Agreement to the federal government. Rights such as education, the unfair 5% oil and gas royalties, the equal partnership status and what not. All these were given up by the Sarawak BN government over the past 52 years and the damages caused are beyond repair.

Our CM has been saying all the right things but can he deliver? The feel good factors will slowly give way to reality as the people expect the CM to deliver his pledge on UEC’s recognition, 20% oil and gas royalties and devolution of power by the federal government NOW. If the CM fails to live up to his words, then his credibility will be questioned and doubted by the people who put so much faith in him.

Sibu marginalized

Tuan Speaker, since 2011, I have raised many issues about the developments of Sibu or rather the lack of them. Over the past 10 years, there is no new road or link being built/constructed in Sibu and Sibu’s development has basically come to a standstill. I have submitted a Sibu Outer Links’ proposal to the CM’s office in October 2015 and urged our CM to have it adopted into the 2016 budget. The 70 million proposal will ease the heavy traffic jam and solve the problem of the lack of connectivity among the densely populated residential and commercial areas in Sibu as well as pave the way to develop a low cost housing hub in Sibu.

Tuan Speaker, the 2016 budget tabled by the CM has a development expenditure of RM 5.97 billion and RM2.65 is allocated for the rural development. If we take that and divide by 60 rural constituencies, each constituency will get an average of RM 44 million of development funds.

So why can’t the 5 state constituencies in Sibu, i.e, Pelawan, Bukit Assek, Dudong, Nangka and Bawang Assan request for RM 70 million (which is less than 1.2% of the development budget) allocation to improve the links in Sibu and ease the worsening traffic jam in Sibu? The Sibu Outer Links will benefit the people of all the 5 state constituencies and not sorely for my constituency of Pelawan.

Tuan Speaker, I have no objection for the government to provide higher allocation for the rural areas but bear in mind that the 250,000 people of Sibu should not be excluded from the development that we deserve. Sibu people also need a fair share of development funds and we need it now.

Tuan Speaker, to totally cut Sibu out of the state development, the BN state government is in contempt of the people of Sibu as we don’t see any reason for the CM to refuse a proposal which is good for Sibu even if that proposal was initiated by the DAP.

Sibu has been marginalized for decades by the BN government and we have been overtaken by Miri as the second largest town in Sarawak and Bintulu has now overtaken us as no. 3. The people of Sibu have hope that this CM will be different from his predecessor and I urge the CM to include the Sibu Oute Links in the 2016 Sarawak budget.

Air transportation

Tuan Speaker, I have raised the issue of exceptionally costly airfares to and from Sibu since 2011 and had raised the same issue in my questions as well. However, the government has turned a blind eye to my plea to regulate the airfares and conveniently push the blame to the airline companies.

Sibu airport serves not only the people of Sibu but all the peoples in the central region of Sarawak. It’s the 10^th busiest airport in the country with a passenger traffic of 1,440,935 in 2014 and that’s 3948 per day.

Tuan Speaker, recently I have received many messages from Sarawak students studying in peninsular Malaysia about the costly airfares for them to return for the CNY. I posted one of the messageI received together with the price of air ticket taken from the website of one of the airline companies on my Facebook Timeline and that sparkled a heated reactions from many Sarawakians who complained that the Sibu’s sector air ticket is the most expensive in Malaysia. The post has been share more than 1000 times which shows how dear that subject matter is to the heart of the people in the central region of Sarawak.

The issue was also picked up by the media 2 days after my posting on Facebook and the Headline on one Chinese daily Sin Chew Zit Poh says “Too expensive, returning home for CNY is blood vomiting”.

Tuan Speaker, imagine a one way ticket from KL-Sibu at a staggering RM 1,049! The said article reported that the airfare from KL-Sibu is several times more expensive than KL-KCH and KL-Miri.

Another local Chinese daily, See Hua, also reported on the cut-throat price of air ticket during CNY. CNY is the time for family reunion and it’s the single most important matter for the Chinese. For many parents whose sons or daughters who work in peninsular Malaysia or overseas, the CNY could be the time of the year when they will see each other again.

Tuan Speaker, a return ticket of RM 2,000 plus is simply unacceptable and unaffordable for the students and the parents of these students. During this trying economic time, this will definitely burden many families.

The question, Tuan Speaker, is “can’t the state government do something for the people in central region of Sarawak?” I am sure any airline company needs the approval of the Sarawak government to operate in Sarawak, be it MAS, AirAsia or MASwings.

The state government can’t give a lame excuse that the pricing is fixed by the industry bearing in mind that the airfare during CNY, Gawai and Hari Raya are normally skyrocketing, the players of the aviation industry are seen to exploit the travelers knowing very well that most have no choice but to take the bite.

We have seen how anti-profiteering act has been used to charge the traders who over-charged the consumers and were fined tens of thousands of ringgit but how come the aviation industry can go scotch free?

Surely the state government can do something and the people from central region of Sarawak demand that the state government take immediate measures and action to set up a mechanism for the protection of consumers.

My question to the state government is “if you can’t handle a small matter like this, what else can you do?”

Oil and Gas Royalties

Tuan Speaker, it has been a year and a half since this House resolved to give full mandate to the CM to negotiate with Putrajaya to increase the royalties of oil and gas to 20%. We have seen the CM repeatedly told the people of Sarawak that he will not give up fighting for the fair share of our oil and gas. However, there must be a dateline to the negotiation process or else it shows that the Sarawak state government is too weak to protect the interests of Sarawak.

What has the CM achieved so far on the oil and gas royalties resolution passed by this House? The current session of DUN Sarawak is near its end and yet our CM has almost nothing to report on this all important issue.

If the CM can’t deliver this, how much faith would the people of Sarawak has on him to lead Sarawak forward? If the CM can’t force Putrajaya to the negotiation table then the CM might have to reconsider the political union with federal BN.

CM has pointed out that our state revenue from the Compensation in lieu of Oil and Gas rights has been halved due to the slump in cruel oil and gas price. The assistant minster reply to a member’s question on how long our oil and gas reserve would last has this to say “25 years for oil and 37 years for gas”. Tuan Speaker, our reserve of oil and gas would run out soon and thus it’s imperative that the CM delivers on the resolution passed by this House without delay.

GST, fallen value of Ringgit and 1MDB

DAP has openly urged the CM to pull Sarawak BN out of the federal BN because we know that UMNO has never treated PBB as its equal and Sarawak has lost its position as the equal partner.

The honorable member for Baleh, Senior Minster Tan Sri James Masing has tabled the motion for the review of M’sia Agreement and the Ninth Schedule of the federal constitution speaks volume of the predicament of Sarawak.

Tuan Speaker, we can’t pretend that everything is well when our fellow Sarawakians are facing the toughest economic struggle because of the mismanagement of the federal BN government. The implementation of the GST to save the country’s state coffer and the falling value of the Ringgit because of the scandalous 1MDB and the RM 2.6 billion scandal have all adversely affected the lives of Sarawakians.

While Sarawakians have been receptive of the CM’s open and progressive stand on some of the issues such as religion and race, the use of English, the half-recognition of UEC and funding for the Chinese Independent schools, they are totally disappointed by the CM’s continue political alliance with federal BN.

The CM has lost his chance to leave a legacy to bring about real change to Sarawak and even to the whole of Malaysia for continuing to support the leadership of the PM. The CM failed to utilize his Kingmaker role to bargain for the return of all the Sarawak’s rights as per the Malaysia Agreement and a bigger slice of the federal budget allocation and the 20% oil and gas royalties.

The CM has accused the opposition of trying to associate him with Najib and says he has nothing to do with 1MDB but the CM should know that he can’t distance himself from Najib and 1MDB unless he withdraws his support for Najib.

The coming state election will test the CM’s political correctness for not doing what the Sarawakians expected him to do, i.e. to pull Sarawak BN out of the national BN.

Make no mistake, the people would definitely equate a Vote to CM is a Vote to Najib in the coming state election!

The budget 2016 tabled by the CM falls short of expectation, instead of concentrating on the problems being faced by the people of Sarawak, Finance Minister is more particular about taking credit of its Development Biased and Rural Biased nature of the budget.

The CM failed to address many of the issues such as the impact of GST, 1MDB and the falling value of Ringgit and the spiraling cost of goods and services and ignore the needs of the urban areas while trying to impress the voters of the rural areas. One can’t be wrong to label it as an “election budget of the BN and for the BN”.

But most crucially, the Sarawak budget tabled by the CM is “wrong”!

Tuan Speaker, as pointed out by honorable member for Kota Sentosa, the CM said “the 2016 Budget continues to propose an estimated budget surplus” (page 31 of the Ucapan Belanjawan Bagi Tahun 2016 by the CM).

However, looking at the command paper 13 of 2015, the draft Development Estimates, 2016, we see the Revenue of RM 5,547,488,231 versus the Expenditure of RM 8,040,793,588 (Operating expenses at RM 2,072 billion and Development Expenditure of RM 5,067.7 billion) which shows a deficit of RM 2.493 billion for 2016 budget.

I have read through the whole budget and it just doesn’t add up to be a surplus budget as pointed out by the CM. I think this is very serious as we can’t debate on a budget that is “wrong” as we would not know how to get the revenue to fund the projects outlined by the CM.

I believe that this House should give the CM a chance to revise his budget so that he would not be in contempt of the House for giving wrong information to the House in the budget 2016.

I am incline to believe that the CM wishes to produce revised estimates and put the record straight before this House continues to deliberate on the budget, let along put it to a vote.

Tuan Speaker, I regret that I can’t support a bill based on wrong estimates and look forward to seeing that the CM to represent his revised estimates.