The federal government for the past 58 years had taken lots of our wealth from taxes collected by various federal government departments. Sarawak had lost its oil and gas wealth since 1976 to Petronas and it is speculated that this loss is in the sum of about RM100 billion every year. Since federal has lots of money taken from Sarawak, there is no reason GPS government should use state’s own money to fight Covid-19 pandemic in the state.

Although the state government had dished out six iterations of Sarawakku Sayang Special Assistance (BKSS) worth RM4.5 billion to fight this Covid-19 pandemic and to help Sarawakians and businesses in these difficult times, but, too many people said help did not reach them.

The state government needs to review how the money been spent or food aids been distributed so that citizens hard hit by the pandemic could get proper help.

Many people complained that they could not get any food assistance at all from the government and many said food baskets received by them contained very little items and could only last them for a few days only. They said, it was a one-time hand out and after that they never receive any. The long period of pandemic had caused much suffering to them.
Since the sum spent is huge, the public has the right to know how the money been spent.

The state government has to be transparent on how this RM4.5 billion been spent and it is proper for the state government to come with a proper audit report to be examined by the public of spending made.

The fight against Covid-19 and strategies to revive the economy had not been successful eventhough Sarawak had spent RM4.5 billion on various programmes. Something could be wrong somewhere and the state government need to review all strategies implemented so that a more effective measure could be found to replace the ineffective ones.

VOON LEE SHAN
President