MIRI: PAS wants to know why one million rural Sarawakians are still poor despite the Federal government pumping billions of development funds into the state every year.
PAS state commissioner Jofri Jaraiee said the party, an ally of the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), was concerned about how funds are being used in Sarawak.
Jofri, who is also Miri PAS division chief, said Sarawak gets billions from the Federal budget every year.
"The latest Budget 2021 saw RM4.5bil being allocated to Sarawak for development projects.
"Sarawak also gets billions in oil and gas royalties and they also have vast state revenues.
"These huge sums of money are supposed to be for development projects, but it can be clearly seen that rural Sarawak is still very far behind," he said.
He cited examples such as bad roads¸ poor electricity and treated water supply as well as poor health facilities, schools and housing conditions in rural districts.
"The Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government must explain why rural Sarawak is so backward. It must be accountable for how funds are used every year," he said in an email to reporters.
Jofri said it was high time a mechanism was set up among Perikatan Nasional political partners to monitor how GPS utilises Federal funds.
PAS, an ally of the ruling GPS, wants to see Federal funds used exclusively for development projects to benefit the rakyat, he said.
"Federal funds cannot be used for any other purpose by GPS," he said, adding that PAS wanted a monitoring role over how the funds are used.
Did you find this article insightful?
85% readers found this article insightful
