Pelawan's debate on the motion of thanks in appreciation of the speech delivered by his excellency TYT in the August House on the 8th June 2016.

Pelawan's debate on the motion of thanks in appreciation of the speech delivered by his excellency TYT in the August House on the 8th June 2016.

Tuan Speaker,
I rise to debate on the Motion in appreciation to the speech delivered by his Excellency Tuan Yang Terutama (TYT) in this august House on the 8thday of June, 2016.

Tuan Speaker, I would like to congratulate BN for its many multi-millionaire YBs in this house. It seems that the 11th Sarawak state election reaffirmed that Cash is King.

I don’t know how many candidates actually spent within the limit of RM 100,000 in the just concluded state election as per the guidelines set in the Election Offences Act 1954 but I would be surprised if all the BN candidates actually spent within the set limit?

Free food, lucky draws, scholarships to voters’ children, hotel receptions, free gravels, free roofing materials and what not were given away by the BN campaign.

So, do we have a clean and Bersih election? And if, I am saying if, we didn’t have a clean election, how then could we have a clean government?

We are the law makers and we have all pledged to uphold the laws and the constitutions of the country. News reports that money politics have been rampant in the just concluded state election has tarnished the image of this House and the state government.

BN to fulfil their pledges

Tuan Speaker, the state BN has a 15-point manifesto for the 11th state election, there were the pledges made to the rakyat of Sarawak. The 15-point manifesto are as following:

1) Uphold the rights of Sarawak and its people;

2) Safeguard the peace and harmony of the state;

3) Preserve the Sarawak culture, heritage and beliefs;

4) Guarantee people's rights over their land;

5) Protect and conserve the natural environment;

6) Improve the welfare of the less-fortunate;

7) Provide more affordable housing for low and middle income groups;

8) Accelerate the development of roads and telecommunications, and the supply of piped water and electricity;

9) Enhance accessibility to health services;

10) Increase participation of women in socio-economic activities;

11) Recognize and develop the potential of youths;

12) Advance education and technical training;

13) Create more job opportunities for Sarawakians;

14) Develop a conducive business environment for investment and entrepreneurship; and

15) Industrialize the state through manufacturing, tourism and rural transformation.

Sarawak voters have given the CM a resounding victory in the 11th state election as requested by the CM’s to give him another 5 years so that he can bring more developments and take back the rights of Sarawak from the federal government. We want to see that the pledges made by the CM are fulfilled.

Allow me to ask the CM the following questions:

1) How the state BN is going to uphold the rights of Sarawak and its people when the state BN has unconditionally support the PM and the federal government?

2) How on earth can state BN upholds the rights of Sarawakians when west Malaysian arm forces personnel and their spouses can vote in the state election?

3) How can we uphold the rights of Sarawak when the PM has refused to revise the oil and gas royalties to 20% just before the state election?

4) How can we uphold our rights when we give in to GST and made our peoples suffer?

5) How can we uphold our rights when we are just one of the 13 states in Malaysia instead of an equal partner as per the MA63?

We hope our CM will give a comprehensive and detailed report as to how to fulfill the pledges in his final 5-year term. We hope he will not considered administrative rights given by the federal government as our autonomy rights.

We want the CM to enlighten us on the above mentioned questions as the Speaker has announced that the CM will address the issues of our autonomy in his winding up speech as well.

Sibu Outer Link

Tuan Speaker, I have in October 2015 submitted a RM 70 million “Sibu Outer Link” proposal to the CM to ease the traffic congestion of Sibu and allow easier access to different parts of Sibu and reduce traffic congestion.

Sibu has not built any new access road for more than 10 years and the traffic congestion has stagnant the development of Sibu. Now that the Sibu Municipal Council has brought up the issue of elevating the status of Sibu to City-status and has reported that the proposal has been verbally agreed by the PM, it is imperative for the state government to implement a Sibu Outer Link to connect different parts of Sibu and to allow more room for developments in Sibu.

The 11th state election results have shown that BN captured 3 of the 5 state seats in Sibu and I hope the state government can reciprocate the support of the voters as well by giving the green light to the Sibu Outer Link proposal submitted by us or come up with a better alternative to our proposal.

Tuan Speaker, the 2016 budget has a development expenditure of RM 5.97 billion and RM2.65 billion 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 congestion in Sibu? The Sibu Outer Link will benefit the people of all the 5 state constituencies and not solely for my constituency of Pelawan.

Tuan Speaker, I have no objection to the government’s plan 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 developments’ plan, 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 and I urge the CM to include the Sibu Outer Links in his plan.

Lop-sided representation in Sarawak civil forces

Tuan Speaker, the recent revelation of the racial imbalance in composition of state’s civil service raises calls to address this thorny issue.

The Borneo Post has exposed this and called it “A case of lopsided representation”. In the said report, the Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA) president Dr. Dusit Jaul, said the statistics have indicated that the professional and management group in the state civil service appears to be biased toward a particular ethnic group.

Dr. Dusit put it this way “when our chief minister proclaims that he is a chief minister for all, we trust his words. The next 5 years would be for our chief minister to honestly correct this imbalance.”

Our DCM Dr. James Masing has been reported saying that he has raised the issue with the CM soon after the CM took office 2 years ago.

Mind you, Tuan Speaker, the DCM has admitted that the inaction by the Dayak and Chinese leaders in BN had contributed to the current imbalance and that it’s time to make amend and moving toward a Fair and Just society.

Tuan Speaker, we really need to have a civil service that reflects the social fabric of the Sarawak society and I am sure that all the members of this House will agree with me that to bring up this issue in this August House is not politicking but rather the most responsible way of addressing the imbalance.

Tuan Speaker, as at 31st May 2015, out of the total graduate (Grade 41 to JUSA) positions in the state’s civil force of 1478 positions, the Malay/Melanau holds 801 of them (54%), the Dayaks hold 416 (28%) and the Chinese hold 259 positions (18%). Out of the 96 JUSA and 54 grade positions, the Malay holds 55 (57.2%), Dayaks hold 23 (24%) and the Chinese hold 18 (18.8%) of them.

The lopsided representation of the state civil service is surely a long term planning by the state BN administration. How ironic this is to Sarawakians who pride ourselves for the racial harmony and the state BN who always boasted about fairness to all races?

We have seen the racialism of UMNO and the federal government in West Malaysia from economic to education and federal civil services intakes to procurements and government’s projects. But in Sarawak? Are we not supposed to be better than them?

Our CM has blasted “stupid!” about some of the policies of the federal government, I hope he can see what’s happening under his administration. We hope the CM can address the following questions:

1) Does the state government have any plan to address the lopsided representation of the state civil service? If yes, what’s the plan? If no, why?

2) What’s the time frame for the state government to implement the plan for fair and equitable representation of the state civil forces?

Local Councils

Tuan Speaker, on the services provided by the local councils, we all know that the local councils collect rates from the people in order for them to provide the basic services such as maintenance of roads, drains, collecting of rubbish, cutting of weeds and providing street lightings to the ratepayers.

However, most of the local councils failed miserably in providing these basic services to the ratepayers and taxpayers. The most frequently given excuse for their failure is “no funding”.

Tuan Speaker, we all know that the rates collected by the local councils are simply not sufficient for them to provide adequate services to the people but the state government has turn a blind eye to the issue for decades, why?

The newly minted minister for Local Government has been reported by the press as saying “don’t worry about funding and lack of man power, I will source for them for the local councils”.

The news was well received by the people in general as lack of funding is definitely a problem the government must address to help make our community a safe place to live. I am however totally disappointed that the minister for Local Government ducked the question during the questioning time last week and left it to his assistant minister to answer knowing very well that his assistant minister might not know that he has assured the local councils that funding is not a problem that they have to worry about.

But I am sure the minster know that the underperformance of most of the local councils are not only due to funding but also because of the political patronage appointment system of the local councilors.

Sarawakians have a few questions for the minister of Local Government as following:

1) What is your plan to source for enough funding for all the local councils?

2) How much additional funding will the local councils get from the state government this year and for the next 4 years?

3) How much additional funding would you get from the federal government for 2016 and for the next 4 years?

4) How many councilors of the local councils will be replaced in July when their term expired by 30th June 2016?

5) What are the criteria for the selection of local councilors?

6) Would you not agree that in a truly democratic society the people should not be asked to pay taxes or rates unless they have representation? and

7) Would you recommend to the cabinet that Local council’s elections be reinstated in Sarawak?

Sarawakians want the minister to give us the answers to the above questions in his maiden winding up speech.

Setting up free tuition centers for the poor Sarawakians students

Tuan Speaker, education is key to the future of Sarawak and Anak Sarawak and what has the state government done that we can be proud of?

We heard too often that Education is a federal matter and the matter should be best addressed in Parliament but that’s the kind of mentality that set us back for the past 50 years. Our CM has said in numerous occasions that the flip-flop educational policies have adversely affected our standard of education.

The Selangor Government’s established the Program Tuisyen Rakyat Selangor (PTRS) to facilitate students who was sitting for SPM, by giving free extra classes specifically for those who come from poor families. 5600 students received free tuition under the same tuition program. The subjects offered are Malay, English, Maths and history.

Tuan Speaker, due to worrying state of economy currently and the rising cost of living and education the families with monthly incomes of RM 2,000 should be assisted so that their kids would not have to suffer.

We know that our education system is getting worse and the most affected group is actually the lower income groups as the parents can’t afford private tuition.

That was the reason why we should set up similar programs so that the poor can have a good place to learn, to work hard and excel in their lives later on.

The Selangor budget for 2016 is only RM 2.25 billion while we have a budget of RM 5.97 billion. If Selangor can do it, why can’t Sarawak?

We should set aside a budget to establish free tuition center in every constituency in Sarawak.

Vote the opposition or the rice bowl

Tuan Speaker, the CM has promised much during the just concluded state election but there were reports that he also threatened the voters with “vote the opposition or the rice bowl” during his meet the employees of the Big 6 timber companies in the run up to the state election.

As the CM is a fully trained lawyers I am sure he knew that that kind of statement is an insult to the voters and his own intelligence. How could democracy flourish if the voters are threatened and undue influence be allowed? I would urge the CM to clarify this matter in this House in his winding up speech as well.

Poor governance

Tuan Speaker, I have paid much attention to the BN back benchers delivering their speeches and there’s one opinion we all share in common; Sarawak is poorly developed.

The BN backbenchers talked about poor infrastructures, lack of basic amenities such as electricity, piped water, clinics, firefighting facilities and street lighting.

The chairman of the BN backbenchers’ even put up a brave face in his debate calling Putrajaya to honor the promises made to Sarawakians during the state election. Putrajaya should take the election pledges made by federal ministers seriously and not assume Sarawak would always be BN’s “fixed deposit”, said Sarawak BN Backbenchers Club Chairman Abdullah Saidol

However, the BN backbenchers still refused to acknowledge all these are the results of poor governance by the BN. Some of them talked about taking back the autonomy from the federal government without first acknowledged that all it was the results of the state BN giving in to federal BN for the past 50 years.

I still have doubt about how the state BN is going to fulfill the pledges made to the Sarawakians in the 15-point manifesto. I doubt the political will power of the state BN to stand up to its big brother, UMNO.

Sarawakians have given the biggest mandate to the CM and the CM has only less than 5 years to deliver his promises. Let the CM tell this House how he is going to fulfill his promises in his winding up speech. Let there be no excuse for the CM to avoid these questions.

Tuan Speaker, the TYT has in his speech advises the state government to deliver its promises. He has urged the members of this House to voice up for the rakyat in this House, and I hope that Tuan Speaker will allow all the members to speak up freely without hindrances and let this House be as vibrant as possible.

I conclude my debate by thanking the Tuan Yang Terutama for his presence and his gracious address in this Dewan on 8th of June 2016.