SIBU, Nov 6 — Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) aspires to combat inflation and corruption, restore Sarawak’s rights, eradicate poverty and provide affordable housing, if its candidates get elected to Parliament the upcoming 15th general election (GE15).
PSB president Datuk Sri Wong Soon Koh, who is standing in Sibu, said these were among the promises that the party would deliver if they win the election.
“It matters the most for the government to meet the fundamental needs and basic requirements of the people. People’s life is very difficult due to inflation and rising costs of goods and food.
“I have travelled the length and breadth of Sarawak, and I can see that people are living in difficulties. China President Xi Jinping has said that the people’s wish for a better life is the priority of the government before you embark on mega or visionary projects like Vision 2030 (achieving high-income economy by 2030).
“To combat inflation, we will improve financial management. We will make sure that people have access to electricity and water supply including bridges and Internet coverage,” he said when launching PSB manifesto at his service centre here today.
Wong, who is Bawang Assan assemblyman, said the Premier of Sarawak had talked about visionary and mega projects such as Autonomous Rail Transit (ART), 5G or even 7G Internet coverage and hydrogen economy.
According to the PSB leader, these are visionary projects which can be implemented later.
“At this stage, they are not so practical and realistic and would not benefit the masses of the people. You talked about achieving high-income economy by 2030 and projected the GDP (gross domestic product) growth by eight per cent.
“Never in the history that Sarawak has achieved so (8 per cent of GDP growth), the most was 5.6 per cent or on average 3 to 4 per cent. How could Sarawak leapfrog to 8 per cent until 2030? They (the state government) should concentrate on basic needs of the people. Goods and food prices are ever increasing,” he pointed out.
Wong said petty traders at the Central Market here had lamented about poor business performance recently.
He observed that some locals had turned their backyard garden into vegetable garden for self-sufficiency and this had indirectly led to a drop of business for petty traders at the Central Market.
“Hawkers at the Central Market have cried that they cannot do business. The government should come up with measures to help these small-time traders as well as SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to cushion the impact of inflation before talking about mega projects,” he said.
On fighting corruption, he said PSB will focus on restoring transparency, integrity and accountability in all government systems.
“We need to stem out corruption. Money that is taken out from the coffer, some is siphoned overseas, causing an outflow of fund. As such, foreign investors do not have confidence in our country, leading to a decline in foreign investments,” he said.
Wong said PSB would also build more affordable houses for the people particularly in reaching out to the first-time house buyers.
“We will not forget about offering better prospects of life for youths and women. We will promote gender equality in all aspects of life and provide youths, both men and women, with greater education and employment opportunities to secure higher income,” he added. — Borneo Post
