Putrajaya ready to work with GPS for Sarawak’s benefit, says Baru

KUCHING, Nov 7 — Ba’Kelalan state assemblyman Baru Bian today gave his assurance that the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government is ready to work with the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government to implement any projects that are beneficial to Sarawakians.

He also asked the GPS government to not be too fast in drawing conclusions, or rather presumptuous in alleging that the PH government has not acted in the best interests of Sarawak.

“Time will prove whether we fare better than our predecessors,” he said during the debate on the state Budget 2019 in the Sarawak State Assembly here.

“In the chief minister’s budget speech and in the comments by other GPS leaders after the federal Budget was tabled, a common theme was the lamentation that Sarawak has not been given enough allocations by the PH federal government.

“These commentators do not want to concede that the new government is only six months old and has had to grapple with crippling debts incurred by the man hailed by the same GPS leaders only a year ago as the ‘best-ever prime minister for Sarawak’,” he said, referring to Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“The legacy of mismanagement, theft and debt inherited from the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government, of which the GPS members were a part, is truly mind-blowing in its astronomical amount.

“GPS members had chosen to stay quiet in the face of mounting criticism and revelations about the appalling greed and arrogance of the previous prime minister and the members of his government, especially in the 1MDB scandal,” Baru said.

He said as a partner that accepted the alleged “grand theft” by the previous BN government, the now renamed GPS should not be so ready to shoot their newfound bullets at the new government that is cleaning up the mess that has featured in major news networks around the world.

On the state Budget, Baru, who is also the federal works minister, said he is happy that it is development-based with a focus on rural areas.

“Indeed, this Budget has been hailed as historical and the highest-ever Budget by many of my honourable colleagues on the other side of the House. Compared to the 2018 Budget of RM5.78 billion, this year’s Budget of RM11.914 billion is definitely a blockbuster,” he said.