THE new Pakatan Harapan federal government should not make the same mistake as Barisan Nasional regarding development allocations to Sarawak, Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg said.

He told the state assembly today that BN had decided allocation amounts based on the size of the state’s population, which he said was generally taken to be about 10% of the country’s total population.

This might be sufficient for “social projects” but was insufficient to develop a landmass which is 38% that of the country’s total landmass, the chief minister said.

Abang Johari BN’s formula was the reason for the relative lack of basic infrastructure and the current backwardness in Sarawak’s rural communities.

“This is a major error which I hope the new federal government can correct in their relationship with us.

“The new federal government must increase the development allocations to Sarawak by at least four times.”

Abang Johari said the increased allocation would allow Sarawak to speedily upgrade rural infrastructure including roads, drinking water supply, electricity supply and Internet access, schools and medical clinics, and agricultural and economic programmes.

Putrajaya must understand that development in Sarawak was made challenging not just because of its huge landmass but because populated areas were small and scattered, with some 5,000 villages in the state’s hinterland.

The Sarawak government used to be under BN but its parties pulled out of the coalition after the recent May 9 elections and formed a new alliance called Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) which has pledged support for the Pakatan Harapan federal government. – July 18, 2018.