THE offer of a RM1 billion loan by the Sarawak government to Putrajaya to speed up repairs on some 1,020 dilapidated schools in the state, was brushed off by Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen as a “political ploy”.

“Why give it as a loan?” he said in his media conference to rebut statements made earlier by state Education Minister Michael Manyin in the state assembly today.

“If you have the money, why loan it to the federal government? Why don’t you (the state government) just go ahead and repair the schools?” Chong, who is also the deputy minister of domestic trade and consumer affairs, said.

He said the state’s argument that it needs permission to do the repairs as education is under the federal purview does not hold water.

The political ploy, he said, is “holding the students to ransom”.

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg had repeatedly said in the past that the federal government had yet to reply to the offer.

Manyin said the chief minister had also written to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng on August 1 on the offer.

He said he had however not received any reply from the finance minister.

Manyin had earlier in the assembly said his ministry had managed to seek RM59 million from the state government to connect water and electricity to a few hundred off-grid schools.

He said RM50 million would be used to connect 113 schools to the electricity grid, and RM9 million to connect 33 schools with treated water supplies.

“I have obtained formal approval from the cabinet for these two projects.

“However, because education is under the purview of the federal government and the schools are the property of the federal land commissioner (FLC), formal consent of the Education Ministry to carry out the works is required.”

He said he had officially written to Education Minister Maszlee Malik in August to request for consent.

“But up to today, we have not received any consent to carry out the work.”

Manyin said 371 schools in the state are still dependent on generator sets for electricity and 428 are still without treated water supplies. – November 13, 2018.