Madius
I urge Prime Minister TS Muhyiddin Yassin and Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz to slash the RM 85.5M allocated to JASA, a call that has been made by members of the public, opposition MPs and even MPs from UMNO.
The Government should transfer JASA’s RM 85.5M for expenses in health, economy, telecommunication, and other productive sectors. Half of that, RM 42.25M should be ear-marked for Sabah while the other half can go to other states and sectors.
UPKO cannot support a budget that keeps RM 85.5M – roughly RM 3 per Malaysian – for cybertroopers and cronies when patients, frontliners, families and businesses are denied more support.
Sabah deserves the extra RM42.25 M because we are the hardest-hit state by Covid-19 – in danger of becoming the Wuhan and or Milan of Malaysia – due to uncontrolled influx of illegal immigrants in her porous border. Our plight today is a testimony of Sabah’s marginalisation within Malaysia after 57 years.
As a loyal servant of Sabah and Malaysia, UPKO will vote against the budget or table motions to amend it in the committee stage if TS Muhyiddin is adamant to bulldozer his flawed budget without any amendments. If his majority in the parliament is lost or called into question, he can only blame his arrogance and apathy to people’s suffering.
No parties and parliamentarians with conscience can support the allocation of RM 85.5M to benefit cybertroopers and cronies than supporting Malaysians who fight the pandemic and struggle to make an honest living.
As Sabahans are our boss, UPKO will organise a zoom townhall meeting on Budget 2021 tomorrow at 1.00 pm.
It will also broadcast live from UPKO Malaysia Facebook (@UPKOMalaysia) to seek Sabahans’ inputs on what programmes and purposes the additional RM 42.25M should be earmarked for.
