Former natural resources and environment minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told FMT the small RM10 million increase in funds to Sarawak is nothing if one considered the inflation rate.
Sarawak has been allocated RM4.346 billion compared with RM4.336 billion in last year’s budget.
“With the increase in prices, that RM10 million is nothing.
“There are no details on what the money is for. What happened to the billions of ringgit worth of projects that have been put on hold in Sarawak? There are no details on them.
“If all the projects that were approved by the previous government are not going to be carried out, then all these billions mean nothing at all.”
Wan Junaidi said previously under his ministry, the federal government approved more than a billion ringgit in projects to build up Sarawak’s infrastructure.
For example, he said a RM65 million road project in Sembilan Beradik had been scrapped and may never be resumed.
Wan Junaidi was also concerned that the budget is too urban-centric with no mention of housing for the hardcore poor.
“Lim talked about housing for families in the rural areas but how many of these families will go and buy a house?
“He mentioned the B40 low-income group a lot but he meant the B40 living in urban areas, not those in rural areas,” he said.
“I am concerned because in Sarawak, about 40% of our people still live in the rural areas.
“The federal government has failed to consider Sabah and Sarawak in this budget.
“The finance minister is only looking at big cities like Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ipoh and Johor Bahru.
“He didn’t forget Sabah and Sarawak though … he still takes our oil,” he said.
Sarawak’s minister for youth and sports Karim Hamzah said the good thing about Budget 2019 was that it did not burden the people much as no big taxes were imposed on goods or services.
Even the development funds for Sarawak are almost similar to what the previous federal government used to give to Sarawak, he said.
He was concerned at the lack of attention to Sabah and Sarawak in the budget.
“There is no special effort to develop the two states to ensure they can grow on par with Malaya.
“Probably, both Sabah and Sarawak are not on Guan Eng’s radar or they are the least important to him except as ‘cash cows’.”
Karim also noticed the absence of any mention about the oil royalty which PH had promised to increase to 20% in its election manifesto.
The Pan Borneo Highway project is to be continued at a revised cost but Karim said nothing was said about upgrading other infrastructure important to Sabah and Sarawak.
“There’s no mention at all about improvements to the many rural schools in Sarawak which are in a dilapidated condition, (with no) clean water supply or electricity supply.
“It is a disappointing budget and it looks like the economic and development gap between Sarawak and Malaya will continue to widen.”