7 Km Long & RM848 Million In Cost
‘ The groundbreaking ceremony of the Batang Lupar bridge project in Sebuyau, scheduled for this Thursday, has been postponed to a date to be announced later ’
Those are the words of a terse announcement from Sarawak JKR informing that the groundbreaking ceremony to mark the commencement of the RM848 million bridge project across has been postponed. The 7 km long bridge across the Batang Lupar was supposed to take off immediately as link roads commenced.
The mouth of the Batang Lupar where the bridge is to be constructed is also the site of a recent tragedy that claimed 9 lives on the 1st Jan 2021. In the incident, a 4WD pickup slipped off the ferry ramp and fell into the river.
The reason assigned for the postponement was COVID.19 but it is noted that there has been no reported case of COVID.19 infection in the Sebuyau district lately.
The implementation of the Batang Lupar bridge project was cancelled under the 12th Malaysia plan in August 2018 by the PH federal government and postponed to an undetermined future date. The brickbats received by Yb Baru Bian who was the minister for works at that time was unbelievable, in mainstream media, in online news portals and in social media. Words like betrayal, traitor, neglecting Sarawak, afraid of the boss and dismissive attitude were among the negative comments leveled at Baru Bian then.
https://dayakdaily.com/proposed-batang-lupar-bridge-sarawak-hopes-putrajaya-will-chip-in-rm400m/
In Nov 2018 the GPS government of Sarawak, then an opposition party at the federal level, announced that they will proceed with the project, at their own cost.
https://sarawakvoice.com/2018/11/09/batang-lupar-bridge-will-proceed-with-or-without-ph-funding/
As we all are aware of, the PH government fell in the 3rd week of February 2020 and was replaced by the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government. With the installation of the PN federal government GPS, together with UMNO were back in the federal government. PAS too found themselves part of the federal government and comrade to GPS. Then the strangest turn of event took place. Instead of getting the PN federal government to resurrect the 3 massive bridge projects which were cancel by the previous PH government the GPS government of Sarawak decided to proceed with the Batang Lupar project at its own cost. The official earth breaking ceremony was then fixed for today (18th Feb 2021).
https://dayakdaily.com/ongoing-rm848-million-batang-lupar-bridge-fully-funded-by-gps-govt/
Why did the GPS government of Sarawak decided to fully fund the Batang Lupar bridge themselves when they, as the kingmaker in the PN federal government, could have easily demanded from PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that the federal government fully finance the cost of that bridge plus the other two that were also cancel by the PH government? Are they really in the exalted position of a kingmaker or are they just a two-bit follower in the PN government? RM848 million in state money would have been more than enough to buy COVID.19 vaccine to vaccinate ALL Sarawakians or alternatively, to buy communication devices for needy families in the B40 group so that their school-going children are technologically enabled to follow online teaching and learning. It is very disheartening to hear a GPS state assemblyman suggesting that NGOs should use crowd funding to buy communication gadgets for students from poor families to follow online learning.
https://www.newsarawaktribune.com.my/crowdfunding-proposed-to-buy-education-equipment/
The message to all Sarawkians now is this: The GPS government of Sarawak has failed Sarawakians in all areas that matter most, especially in on-going COVID.19 pandemic: In the prevention of the period of COVID.19, in the provision of internet to the rural areas of Sarawak, in the provision of road connectivity in the menoa pesisir (the jiwa murni is not visible in the jiwa murni roads), safe school buildings and facilities, completely eliminating or at least reducing to the bare minimum the B40 families in Sarawak. The time for change is long overdue. Do not let GPS rule Sarawak for another term.
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