MP for Bintulu hits out at the Ministry of Local government and community development

suppadmin | January 29, 2014

MP for Bintulu, Dato’ Sri Tiong King Sing hits out at the Ministry of Local government and community development today for their poor judgment of councilors and the unfairness of selection of community leaders.

Dato’ Sri Wong Soon Koh is the Minister for Local government and Community Development – both community leaders and councilors were selected through his ministry.

Tiong who is also the Deputy President of Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) ,said he was aghast with the way the selection of councilors was done. He said there was no respect for the recommendation made by the respective parties.

“Did he respect the component party’s decisions? Even my own party, he should come back and tell us that some names we recommended were not suitable and let us know why they were not selected. Then give us time to change the list, a list we considered to be people-friendly. But there was none. How could he over-rule our decisions? Is it what power sharing is all about? I called it dictatorship,” said a fumed Tiong.

Tiong said this is the weakness portrayed by the Ministry and they should seriously look to rectify the situation. This weakness, he said will not win over the people’s hearts. “When the election comes, how are we to explain to the people? They have already lost confidence in us and are fed up with us. And this is the time we rectify the problem and warmed the people to us. But instead the damage is done and when the election come, even if we try to rectify the problem, the people will not accept it, he lamented.

I am in the party in charge of Chinese community and I was sadden and shocked to be told that the son of the Minister is nominated to be the deputy Sibu Municipal council. “Why is his son selected? Many people cannot accept this. You go and ask the Sibu people, the layman. There are more youngsters in Sibu who are more qualified and more senior. We should not have a dynasty anymore, passing the power of the father to the son. This is what I mean when I said we should rectify the situation. Even our Prime Minister did not put his immediate family into the government position.”

He added that he was very upset when the Minister concerned said his son was not appointed by him. “Who can accept that? By saying that, you are undermining the people’s intelligence and the people will lost respect of you. So how can we win back the Chinese votes. We have been dreaming, now we should wake up and rectify the situation. We should stop this practice of dictatorship. I am not saying all these against anyone personally but I am saying this for the good of all. I just want justice and power sharing,” said Tiong.

On the community leaders in Bintulu, Tiong said there were only 7 and there was no Penghulu but in Sibu, there were over 100 of them. “Are you telling me that Bintulu people are not competent?