Dewan Speech on 12th July 2018 by Lo Khere Chiang

suppadmin | July 12, 2018

State Assembly DUN Speech on 12 th July 2018 By State Assemblyman for Batu Kitang, Lo Khere Chiang

Honourable Datuk Amar Speaker

Thank you for the honour and the opportunity to debate Tuan Yang Terutama, Yang di-Pertua Negeri’s opening address at this first meeting of the third session of the 18 th Sarawak State Legislative Assembly on the 9 th day of July 2018. I support and congratulate Tuan Yang Terutama for his articulate speech, covering all aspects of the state’s welfare, social and economic development, from education to public health , social security and preservation of the environment.

Honourable Datuk Amar Speaker

First of all, I would like to congratulate Pakatan Harapan (PH) on winning the 14th General Election.

With the new government, a number of things have been done but there is one elephant in the room that needs to be tackled and I am very concerned about it.

In Pakatan Harapan’s booklet ‘Buku Harapan’ issued before GE14, it specifically promised to give back all rights that originally belonged to Sarawak as stated in MA63 including Sarawak’s oil back to the government of Sarawak. Instead, just less than a month after the election, we received a law suit from KL based Petronas against the state government claiming the oil and gas from Sarawak to be theirs. Sarawakians must come together to pursue and to demand for PH’s manifesto on this subject to be fullfilled immediately. After all, this is what has been promised by Pakatan Harapan to the people of Sarawak before the election.

Entry of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu)

Honourable Datuk Amar Speaker,

Do we ever ask ourselves WHY PENINSULAR PARTIES are SO KEEN to come over to SARAWAK? After DAP and PKR, Amanah and now Bersatu have indicated their intention and interest to enter Sarawak. What is it here in Sarawak that attracts them so much? What is the real motive behind all these? If it is about power, with 113 seats and 30 million people over in Malaya, they already have it. The PH are in control of the government of the day and thus the nation’s purse is in their hands.

Honourable Datuk Amar Speaker,

Sarawakians must be extremely careful as to who we let into Sarawak. KL based Petronas has been exploiting and benefiting from Sarawak’s oil and gas by an estimated RM500 billion since 1974 .

How did Sarawak become termed as one of the poorest regions in Malaysia? Yes, our people were less capable and less educated in the 1960s. That’s the reason the 18 points agreement was drafted by the British to protect the then less educated people of Sarawak from the unfair challenges and clutches posed by Malaya and to prevent exploitation of Sarawak by Malaya. Today, our leaders, regardless of race and religion must now come together to protect our land and our people. We have shown Malaya the respect accorded to them in the show of goodwill from Sarawak all these years and now the time has come that they should reciprocate. All these years, they have had a better life because they benefitted from our oil and gas as highlighted by the honorable member of Bukit Assek in this August house on 10/7/2018. Now it is only right that we use our oil and gas to develop our own dilapidated basic infrastructure.

Take for instance, my Arang Road and Capital Garden constituency. Padawan Council needs RM20 Million and RM30 Million respectively to refurbish 30 years old dilapidated drains and footpath and which are stagnant with water and smelly.

Today after PH take over the federal government, they reduced their allocation for BPI projects that Padawan council received from the federal government and how much are these projects? At most RM2 Million and we have 26 councils throughout Sarawak.

Can we trust PH to take care of Sarawak? It already looks like item 41 of Buku Harapan is far from being fullfilled. In Item 41 from Buku Harapan, I QUOTE:

“To ensure the prosperity of the people of Sabah and Sarawak by enhancing the States’ economic growth. Sabah and Sarawak are rich in natural resources, such as oil, gas and timber. But the wealth of Sabah and Sarawak has been exploited and plundered by UMNO and Barisan National to enrich the peninsula, while the East Malaysian states remain among the poorest in Malaysia. This inequality will cease when Pakatan Harapan comes to power.” This is the exact quote from Item 41 of PH’s Buku Harapan.

We must, through this Dewan, voice our objections to further West Malaysian parties from coming in to take over Sarawak. When we lose our political grip over our Dewan Undangan Negeri Sarawak, we shall lose our economy and our prosperity. We don’t need more West Malaysian parties here. From the allocation of the present Ministerial posts where Sarawak has been so poorly represented, they have already warned us of what’s coming and is showing us who the boss is. Where are all the talks and promises to honour and to respect MA63? Didn’t the Inter-Government Committee (IGC) spell out that 1/3 of the 222 parliamentary seats should belong to and be held by Sarawak and Sabah representatives? Here, in Sarawak’s Dewan Undangan Negeri, we decide the fate of Sarawak in our own hands. I have no confidence in West Malaysian based parties that they will look after Sarawak better than we can look after ourselves.

Honourable Datuk Amar Speaker,

Very often we hear that even if the RM15billion oil revenue is given back to Sarawak, the money is not enough to pay for our Health, Education and security from the army to the police. However, this is not true. If Singapore can do it , Sarawak can do it better. In fact, I applaud PH’s manifesto. The first thing PH should do is to honour and announce what has been advocated i.e to table in Parliament, to recognize and to honour MA63, to return the rights of Sarawakians as stated in MA63, to return our oil rights as promised by Pakatan Harapan as manifested under Buku Harapan.

By the way, Petroleum Development Act 1974, is under the purview of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism. Tun Dr Mahathir has rightfully appointed Honourable member for Kota Sentosa to be the assistant minister in this portfolio.

Now is the time for the honourable member for Kota Sentosa to preach what he advocates, to and the clauses under PDA1974, to return what is rightfully belongs to Sarawak. After all, PH has 113 members in parliament. Together with 56 from Sarawak and Sabah, we can amend PDA 1974.

We do not want just 20% of our oil royalty as informed by the honourable member for Kota Sentosa in this August house on 10/7/2018. 5% is equivalent to only Rm800million received by the state government annually all these years. 20% is equivalent to RM3.2billion only. Sarawak’s state revenue is already RM6billion annually.

We want what is rightfully ours. We want to be fairly treated. We want 100 % of the oil revenue belonging to Sarawak. We want Rm15billion. 20% oil royalty or Rm3.2billion is chicken feed compared to the RM15billion siphoned out from Sarawak annually. It does not matter that the federal government’s finance is in the red now. Pakatan Harapan should stand by their manifesto and declare their commitments to adhere to MA63. If the federal government does not have the money to pay us, they can owe us and pay us at an agreed date later. In the meantime, we shall stand firm behind our Chief Minister to demand that PDA is null and void in Sarawak and Sarawak is not just one of the 13 states in Malaysia as no legislations have been discussed and passed through our Council Negeri. Saying there is no money because of the previous government’s folly is akin to cheating Sarawakians and negating on the words of Pakatan Harapan.

STATELESS CHILDREN

Honourable Datuk Amar Speaker,

Stateless children remain an unresolved issue which is unnecessarily cruel to the families concerned. It is upsetting to me as I have pointed out the problem two DUN sittings ago.

UN refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Malaysia reported that there were 12,368 persons registered as stateless in Malaysia while Sarawak Welfare, Women and Community development Ministry had estimated that 60,000 people are without birth certificates in Sarawak early this year.

This is an alarmingly huge number. Ironically, almost all these children are born here but to either a foreign mother/father.

I have personally handled 15 cases with some of the children living in limbo for more than 21 years old. Most will go to primary schools but once they transition to secondary schools, they were not accepted as they do not have the identity card (Mykad) which is needed for a number of entry registrations.

These children have no access to higher education, cannot work or open a bank account or get a driving licence or travel or get married. In government hospitals, they were treated like foreigners having to pay a hefty sum for treatment. Among these stateless children, there is animosity and anger at the unfair system imposed on them, through no fault of theirs.

For those who managed to get hired, they could only do mostly blue collar jobs while some were unfortunately being taken advantage of. I have known of children who are withdrawn and anti-social due to the stigma they live with.

Putra Jaya’s inaction on stateless children in Sarawak has been very cruel. I have gone to the National Registration department (NRD) myself to help some of the children but was repeatedly told that the final decision lies with Putra Jaya.

Unfortunately, Putra Jaya dragged the issue without a care about the plights of these children. Some of the parents had gone to the NRD year after year but their efforts had all been in vain.

It is time, the NRD handed over this devolution of power to Sarawak NRD to decide on the fate of these children instead of having to refer everything to Putra Jaya which takes years to make a decision. While Putra Jaya sits on the matter, the lives of these children continued on with pain. NRD excuses are manifold: there were too many cases to handle, the final decision lies with Putra Jaya, documents were incomplete and so on and so forth.

I am hopeful that the PH government will hand over this devolution of power to Sarawak for us to settle this matter swiftly. Do not let these stateless children suffer any longer.

Inadequate Internet service and Plight of Chinese schools

Honourable Datuk Amar Speaker,

A number of schools in my Batu Kitang Constituency are progressing towards providing our classrooms with the necessary ICT facilites as educational tools in all areas of teaching and learning.

The goal of attaining STEM education is a priority in our education blueprint.

However, it will not be possible without a tangible facility to start with – basic ICT infrastructure and internet accessibility.

Though some of these are government assisted schools, ICT equipment provided by the Federal Ministry of Education in these schools are more than 15 years old and has either been disposed of or is already incompatible with present needs. So are the 40 odd notebooks supplied more than 6 years ago as in the case of SJK Chung Hua Batu 4.

In addition to that, the Ministry of Education under the Pakatan Harapan government’s recent directive to stop all computer classes has put SJK Chung Hua Batu 4 & similar schools in further destitution.

A four (4) months breach of contract (2014 – 2018) caused by the directive from the Ministry of Education after PH won GE14 has all ICT facilities provided confiscated.

This has also caused a cut-off of a sustainable income (taxed) for the school board used to provide needs for the school ranging from repairs to supporting educational activities. Among those to be seized are as below:

LCD Projectors – 23 units

3D Visualizers – 25 units

Computer sets – 50 units

LCD Projector Screen – 14 units

Library System Software

Administration System Software

Due to this upsetting decision by the Ministry of Education under the Federal Pakatan Harapan Government, more than one thousand schools are affected ; timetables are disrupted, and more than two thousand computer teachers found themselves out of a job all of a sudden.

I demand that the Pakatan Harapan Government allows four (4) months soft landing to affected Chinese schools .

In terms of internet service, the present 100Mbps TM Unify package previously paid by the Ministry for SJK Chung Hua Batu 4 will be terminated by the end of this month (July) to be replaced by 3 ridiculous wireless modem called ZoomYES with the speed of a minimum 1Mbps to a maximum of 4Mbps by YTL Communication Sdn Bhd, as is arranged by the Federal Ministry of Education. An ordinary household has 8 Mbps internet speed. How can anyone expect to run any modern day computer with 1mbps let alone a school where many computers are expected to run at the same time.

Besides, our lower level English Language syllabus which is taught based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), teaching and learning of all other subjects could not be done without this most basic 21st century education learning facility.

I demand that the PH government direct the Ministry of Education to provide adequate internet speed to all our schools. If only our RM15billion oil revenue annually is returned to us and schools and education is autonomous to Sarawak ,we will be able to continue to assist Chinese schools like before including all rural schools in Sarawak .We will be able to deliver affordable, robust, and secure wireless platforms for all our schools.

ILLEGAL GAMING

Honourable Datuk Amar Speaker,

I want to thank the police for their hard work in whittling down the menace of illegal ‘fish’ machines which had caused many youngsters to be trapped and addicted.

I was told that there could be a few left operating underground and I hope that the police will continue to fish them out and eliminate them once and for all.

However, there are still a lot of cyber online gambling which has been going on despite raids from the police. I know that the police are trying to tackle this problem from their weekly arrests but despite the raids, such centres are still sprouting up.

My very concern is the youngsters who are lured to run these businesses. This youngsters are not willing to do blue collar jobs but are taking it easy running such illegal businesses.

If these activities are not stopped, we may have an undesirable community who are addicted to gambling while losing the younger generation to illegal activities.

There are also cases of children who were made to sell drugs to feed their gambling habits or to pay off their gambling debts. This is a danger, a menace and a plague to society. This sort of ‘disease’ breeds loan sharks, drug dealers and violent crimes. I seriously hope that the police under the Federal PH government will step up efforts to eradicate this social menace.

With this, I close my speech. Thank you, Tuan Speaker.