SARAWAK’S Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is beginning to look like a fake on his views on Sabah and Sarawak.

“Before the last election, he would come out with comments like ‘we must also look after Sabah and Sarawak’ and ‘before we act on anything, we must also look at Sabah and Sarawak’.

“He seemed to be passionate about the neglect Sabah and Sarawak had gone through (under the previous government).

“But after being appointed the finance minister, things seems to be coming differently from him now,” Karim said when asked for his views on Lim’s statement on Wednesday that the federal government will only share its revenue with Sabah and Sarawak after the country’s financial position improves.

Karim asked why Lim was flip-flopping when he knows that the oil and gas revenue that goes to the national coffers comes from Sabah and Sarawak.

“They are the main providers to the national economy.”

Karim said the comment that “we’ll look into your needs when everything is in order” was a lame excuse.

He said Lim’s statement was not only lame but ambiguous.

“When will the country’s financial position improve? In a year, two years?

“When you don’t want to share, you’ll come out with all kinds of excuses,” Karim told reporters who had accompanied him on an inspection tour of the Kuching’s new RM308 million landmark – the new cultural and heritage museum which is nearing completion.

He said if Putrajaya had wanted to give the two Borneo states the financial dues that are legally theirs (under the terms of the Malaysia Agreement 1963), “they can do it now”.

“They can always make the provisions now. They know how much money comes from Sabah and Sarawak.

“Don’t keep on repeating that the government is having problems financially because of the previous government, or they have to recoup first before they can help us financially.

“That is their problem in Malaya. We’re not bothered.” – October 26, 2018.