SERIAN: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has been meddling in education matters like no other finance ministers before him.
This unbecoming behaviour on the part of the finance minister has drawn the ire of Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Seri Michael Manyin Jawong.
Manyin said Lim should just concentrate on improving the economy of the country and attracting investors.
“It is shocking that a Minister of Finance is meddling in the affairs of the Education Ministry,” he said to reporters during a Gotong-Royong Mega event at Serian Community Park here yesterday.
“This is the first time we have heard of a Minister of Finance being involved in education whereas in the past, education matters were the sole responsibility of the Minister of Education,” Manyin added.
He pointed out that former Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid had encouraged the centralisation of schools to address issues relating to cost, academic results and truancy – but Lim had disapproved of the proposal to build centralised schools.
He urged Lim to focus on matters pertaining to the economy.
“Get more investors to come in rather than try to get involved in education,” he advised Lim.
Manyin said that education matters should be tackled by those who are in the relevant ministry, that is, the Ministry of Education (MoE).
“There are a lot of professionals in MoE who are qualified not only in terms of academic but also in experience,” he said.
Meanwhile, he reiterated that the state government had paid the first tranche of RM350 million to the federal government in August last year, which was meant for the repair of 37 dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
“Works on five of the schools were supposed to be tendered in August last year, two in October last year, 17 between November and December last year, and another 13 were to be tendered out before the end of the year,” he said.
However, he said there was a lot of back-and-forth, explaining that Lim had initially agreed for the Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak to be the implementing agency, which later changed to JKR Malaysia, and then more changes took place.
“As a result, JKR Sarawak could not issue the tender process. There is no authorisation letter for them to issue the tender award,” observed Manyin.
Echoing Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, he said this was why not even one school had been fixed yet, even though a total of RM700 million thus far had been issued by the state government to the federal government for the repair of dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
He said that if the schedule of payment had been followed accordingly instead of paying in advance, the state government could have earned RM40 million interest for RM1 billions of funds.
He pointed out that it was the state government’s right to obtain loans from the federal government which were usually paid according to a schedule of payment.
“So, we forgo the interest by paying in advance. We forget about the interest and schedule and we paid because of the urgency to repair the dilapidated schools,” Manyin said.
