PH government takes the easy way out, says Michael Tiang

suppadmin | May 10, 2021

PH government’s decision to terminate the Petra Jaya Hospitial was another blatant example of PH government’s dismissive attitude towards Sarawak and the interests of its people, said Michael Tiang, Political Secretary to Chief Minister.

Tiang said albeit the said Project was long declared as a sick project before PH came into power and instead of taking charge of finding ways to cure that sick project, the PH administration opted for an easy way out – terminated the Project without taking consideration that .

Sarawak’s needs for such a new hospital are in fact real and dire all along.

“When this Covid-19 pandemic hit us since last March, our dire needs for extra hospital beds are even more glaring. Should the PH government have allowed the Petra Jaya Hospital project to continue as planned with revised and tighter scrutiny and supervisions, Sarawak would have extra 300 beds to combat the pandemic.The briefing in 2018 between the state Health Department, Dr. Sim and Public Works Department and the Ministry of Health was conducted during the then Health Minister’s first official visit to Sarawak, added Tiang.

He pointed out that the agenda of the meeting was merely to conduct a
briefing for the then Health Minister. The main Contractor was also present at the said meeting yet they were not allowed to present their appeals as to ways for them to continue and complete the Project. In fact there was no agenda at the meeting to consult Sarawak government on whether the Project should be terminated for good or not. Subsequently, as a result of a final decision to terminate Petra Jaya Hospital project being made at the Ministry of Health level in Kuala Lumpur under PH government alone, the Main Contractor of the project is now taking the Federal Government to court.

Chong, Tiang said has to be honest with himself that bad decisions were made by the then PH government at the expense of Sarawak and its people’s interests in 2018. It is obvious that Chong’s previous statement was another desperate “blame game” on GPS and SUPP with hopes to mislead the public as well as to cover up PH’s broken promises and bad decisions for Sarawak during its 22 months’ reign in Putrajaya.