Press Statement By Sim Kiat Leng:
James Jemut Masing’s proposal to build a RM24 billion wall along the border of Malaysia/Indonesia is typical of the current GPS Government where they always have misplaced priorities. What is even more disappointing is that this proposal is raised during the current Covid-19 pandemic when the people are suffering from loss of employment and income.
Even the newly appointed President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, understands the need to redirect all government effort and attention towards helping the people during this fight against Covid-19. This is the reason why on the very day that President Joe Biden was inaugurated, he immediately signed an Executive Order to stop the construction of the US/Mexico wall.
Such a proposal by James Masing should be called off. Instead, the Sarawak State Government should prioritise the fight against Covid-19 and at the same time take steps to reduce the burden of the people. Rather than finding ways to spend the entire Sarawak state reserves on 1 mega project, the Government should instead come up with more innovative economic measures which will benefit all Sarawakians i.e. providing micro-loans to the SME, purchasing medical equipments for our frontliners and providing better internet infrastructure for schools.
What the people need now is a government that can step up and take care of the needs of the people. Hence, I call upon the State Government to disregard this illogical proposal during this difficult time. Instead, let us focus purely on the global fight against our invisible enemy; Covid-19.
