Media Statement By YB Chong Chieng Jen:
Instead of spending RM60 million of Sarawak tax payers’ money to build a new Majlis Perbandaran Padawan (MPP) new office building, the fund should be better spent to improve the drainage and irrigation system in the MPP areas.
The Minister for Housing and Local Government Dr Sim Kui Hian and the MPP Chairman Lo Khere Chiang should get their priorities right.
At present, one of the most pressing problems faced by the people which the MPP should address is the flash flood and flooding issue, not to have new council building.
Within the MPP jurisdiction, there are still many earth drains that can be replaced with reinforced concrete drains. Whenever residents in the affected areas request the MPP to build reinforced concrete drain, the standard answer from the Council and its Chairman will be “NEED MORE ALLOCATION”.
With the rapid housing and commercial development within the MPP area and the poor Council’s planning on the drainage system, flash flood problem is getting worse by the days.
Therefore, Dr Sim Kui Hian and Lo Kher Chiang have got their priority wrong by prioritising the building of a new Council building over improving the drainage system in the MPP area.
I wish to remind the two of them, the hallmark of a good government is not the grandeur of its building but the quality of its service to the people. I thus call upon Dr Sim and Chairman Lo to shelve the planning of a new MPP building and to put the allocation and people’s money to better use by improving on the existing drainage system.
