Sarawak must use its reserves to resolve residents’ woes, says senator

THE Sarawak government must use the RM40 billion reserves it keeps boasting about to solve residents’ woes, especially the ever-increasing floods and dire lack of basic public amenities, said Senator Abun Sui Anyit. 

Abun of Belaga district told The Vibes today that the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government must be held accountable for the serious flooding currently affecting central Sarawak. 

GPS must also be held accountable for last week’s tragic deaths of three Lundu secondary school students who drowned due to the state government’s failure to construct even a simple bridge from the village to the school, he said. 

“The floods over the past few days in central Sarawak are indeed very severe. 

“Even the PDP president (Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing of Progressive Democratic Party) acknowledged the people’s suffering caused by these floods. 

Tiong yesterday said people living in Sarawak’s flood-prone regions were suffering due to worsening floods. 

Tiong, who is also the Bintulu MP and Dudong state assemblyman, took to social media to publicly express his sympathy for affected residents after seeing for himself the extent of the flooding in Sibu.  

Abun, a native rights lawyer and Belaga resident said GPS chairman Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg regularly boasted that Sarawak had record revenue of RM40 billion. 

“He boasted not just that Sarawak has RM40 billion in its reserves but that every year the state is earning a record income of more than RM13 billion. 

“My question to Johari is this: why are the ordinary Sarawakians still suffering due to the constant floods and lack of basic infrastructure if indeed the state government has so much money? 

“We are obviously concerned why the state’s financial revenue is not being used for the improvement of the people who need the most help,” he said. – August 27, 2024.