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Wong said the people’s wishes include full and uninteruppted water and electricity supply. — File photo
KUCHING (May 18): The Sarawak government must take steps to meet the basic and immediate needs of the people while planning for high levels of development.
In making the call today, Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh (PSB-Bawang Assan) said the state needs to maximise its resources.
“Development is about alleviating poverty, reducing income disparity, facilitating people’s participation and involvement in development, and improving the quality of life.
“People would want to have more food on the table. The people would wish their children could go to well-built and well-furnished schools and not the dilapidated schools.
“People would wish that they had full and uninterrupted piped water and electricity supplies. They would wish to have better road connectivity particularly those in rural areas,” he said when debating the motion of thanks for the Head of State’s address in the august House today.
The Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) president noted the state government had rolled out plans and allocated funds to address various development needs in Sarawak.
He called for all to support Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg’s vision for Sarawak to be a developed and high-income state by 2030.
He pointed out last week Abang Johari talked about setting up the first industrial microalgae carbon capture facility in Malaysia and eventually the biggest in the world, which will be a future economic driver for Sarawak.
Among others, he said Abang Johari also planned to set up a boutique airline to help boost the tourism industry and a commercial bank to help local small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“For some of the projects and programmes being planned by the Premier, we can see that the Premier is visionary and forward-looking; he looks far ahead and plans for the future.
“Some may say the Premier is too ambitious and is not too realistic. Others may say that some of his projects may be too far-fetched and outlandish. Some others may even say that many of his plans may not be realistically and practically achieved.
“Whatever the case, time will tell. Let time be the judge. We must give the Premier sufficient time to realise his vision and dream. Meanwhile, all of us should give full support to the Premier to help him realise his visionary and ambitious plans for the people of Sarawak,” Wong said.
According to him, Opposition members of the House would render full support to Abang Johari while keeping a watchful eye and playing the constructive watchdog role of checks and balances.
He noted that Abang Johari had announced Sarawak recorded a revenue of RM11.9 billion last year, the highest achieved by the state.
“Indeed, we people of Sarawak owe an immense debt of gratitude to our Premier for what he called revenue reengineering. I could recall that no sooner than when he became the chief minister of Sarawak, he decided to impose Sales Tax on oil and gas by involving our State Sales Tax Ordinance 1998, which allows the state government to impose sales tax on goods and services.
“He argued that the state’s decision to impose 5 per cent sales tax on petroleum products is conferred by the Federal Constitution as in Schedule 10 Part V, Section 7.
“Full credit must therefore go the Premier for invoking and utilising the State Sales Tax Ordinance 1998 in 2019, which immediately gave an additional RM3 billion or more revenue per year to the state of Sarawak,” Wong added.
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