Violet Yong
KUCHING (June 8): Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian’s recent remarks that Pending’s development had remained stagnant for the past 20 years reflects the state government’s own failures, said Violet Yong.
According to the Pending assemblywoman, it was absurd for Dr Sim, who is Batu Kawah assemblyman, to make that claim as Pending falls under the jurisdiction of Kuching South City Council (MBKS), which comes under Dr Sim’s own Ministry of Public Health, Housing and Local Government.
“The authorities in planning, approval, allocation, and implementation are all in the hands of the Sarawak government. Dr Sim Kui Hian, as the minister in-charge, is now publicly criticising the development progress within his own jurisdiction.
“This is tantamount to admitting that the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government has failed the people of Pending,” she said in a statement.
Yong said people have every right to question whether the Pending constituency had been granted a fair share of development resources over the years.
According to her, the Sarawak government tables state budgets totalling tens of billions of ringgit annually, with various development plans, infrastructure projects, and public facility upgrading works being implemented.
“How much has Pending, an important part of Kuching city, benefitted from these funds? How many development projects have truly improved the people’s livelihoods?
“If a government with vast financial resources and administrative power ends up finding Pending’s development performance leaves much to be desired, then the problem clearly lies with how the government allocates resources, prioritises development, and whether it truly governs fairly,” she opined.
According to her, the government of the day must never treat development as a political bargaining chip to win votes.
She said it is the responsibility of a government to improve quality of life for the people by implementing development projects fairly across all constituencies.
“It is not fair to decide which area gets more resources based on the election results,” she stressed.
She also questioned whether GPS holding nearly 80 seats in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) was still insufficient in terms of power.
Yong said the state government has a say over issues pertaining to local authorities, financial resources, and administrative machinery, and the GPS government has the political responsibility to develop all areas rather than shifting the responsibility to voters.
She pointed out that the opposition had no access to state financial resources over the past years.
“Opposition members merely play a monitoring role, bring up the people’s voices and help secure funding. It is the Sarawak government that ultimately decides what projects to implement and how to channel the state’s funding,” she said.
She stressed it was baseless to claim that voters themselves were to blame for not seeing further development in their constituency.
During the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Pending Branch’s 42nd anniversary celebration last Thursday, Dr Sim had said development in Pending constituency had slowed over the past two decades.
“It is very sad that, for the last 20 years, it has just been ‘tengok sahaja’ (just looking). Now, Batu Kawah is more prosperous than Pending,” said the SUPP president.
