Read your history, Sarawak minister tells Ngeh

KUCHING - DAP’s Ngeh Koo Ham continued to receive brickbats today over his statement in the Dewan Rakyat that Sabah and Sarawak appeared “ungrateful” for the sum allocated to them in the 2020 Budget, with a minister from Sarawak advising him to read up on his history.

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said Sabah and Sarawak had the right to be angry as their rights had only diminished 56 years after the formation of Malaysia.

“I suggest he does more research on the formation of Malaysia, what was discussed and agreed on by the signatories of the Malaysia Agreement 1963, and the states’ huge contribution to the economy from their rich mineral resources and the yearly pittance of 5% royalty in return,” he told FMT.

“Perak would not be the Perak we see today without the vast contributions from the two Bornean states to the national coffers.”

Ngeh is MP for Beruas, which is in Perak.

Petra Jaya MP Fadillah Yusof had also hit out at Ngeh, saying the latter’s comments showed that DAP leaders were “clueless” and out of touch about the needs and sentiments of Sarawakians.

In the 2020 Budget, Putrajaya announced that Sabah and Sarawak would receive RM5.2 billion and RM4.4 billion respectively in development expenditure next year – about 17% of the total development expenditure of RM56 billion.

Karim said although Sabah and Sarawak had received bigger allocations than other states, it was not fair to draw such comparisons.

“In terms of land mass, the Bornean states are many times larger than Perak,” he said.

In fact, he added, some constituencies in Sarawak are larger than the entire state of Perak.