Sarawak Budget 2022 And The B40 Households - Are Our Rural Based B40 Households Doomed?

 Sarawak Budget 2022 And The B40 Households - Are Our Rural Based B40 Households Doomed?

The sycophants among GPS ADUNs, especially from PBB, is filled with praises for CM Abang Johari’s 2022 Sarawak state budget. Phrases like catalyst for rural development, people-centric, people’s interest at heart, rural people not left out are freely thrown around.

Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) statistics on recipients in 2020 Sarawak has some 443,000 households categorised as B40 households. That is roughly equivalent to 63% of the total households in Sarawak based on a population of 2.8 million people and are mostly rural based.

To help lighten their burden during the critical phase of Covid.19 pandemic, roughly from March 2020 and up to the commencement of national recovery phase in Oct 2022, the Sarawak government has 7 aid packages ( BKSS.0 to BKSS.7) in which one of the aid is a direct cash aid of RM500 to the B40 households. 

The BKSS aid package continue to feature in the 2022 state budget, with an allocation of RM285.47 million but this time there is no mention of the direct cash aid of RM500.00. This aid is critical to B40 households as year 2021 is fast coming to an end. The start of 2022 will also be the start of the new school year, a time when the unavoidable expenses relating to schools will have to be taken care of.

Why did the Sarawak’s GPS government decided not to make an allocation for the cash aid? It will be another 6 months at least before these B40 families are able to get back on their feet, provided there are no more movement control orders (MCO) to reckon with.

Under Strategic Thrust 4, there is a mention about transforming agriculture and rural communities and one of the aim here is to be a net food exporter by 2030. That is the year Sarawak is slated to achieve the developed status. The budget made an allocation of RM134 million towards the stated objectives but it seems the allocation is targeting mostly agroparks in a few selected areas. How can you transform rural economy and rural agriculture if you have no specific provisions for the activities that will transform it. The B40 households are all over Sarawak, not just in Spaoh or Sarikei or Sadong Jaya.

Of the RM1.18 billion allocated for infrastructure, how much is allocated for road connectivity for rural communities? There is no mention of it. Without a network of road connectivity, it is impossible for4 rural folks get the maximum value from their farm produce. Without titles to their NCR land, it would be almost impossible for them to monetise their land. Without gov’t owned agriculture offices in rural-urban areas, how can farmers acquire knowledge about best farm practices. Without subsidies to farm prices, how can small rural farmers weather the fluctuation in prices for seasonal crops? There is nothing said in the budget about these things so how can someone say it is a people-centric budget and rural folks will not be left behind?