SIBU: A former Sarawak DAP assemblyman spoke well of Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) president Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh for the latter’s past contributions when he was in the state cabinet.
Voon Lee Shan, the former Batu Lintang assemblyman from 2006 to 2011 and now Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president, said Wong was very frank with him about many things that he could disclose – though he had to restrict himself on several important issues as based on parliamentary practice and under oath of secrecy as a cabinet minister at that time, he could not disclose much.
“When I was a member of the Sarawak Legislature from 2006-2011, I gave him a very hard time (when he was the finance minister) because I never failed to ask him about revenues that had been taken by the federal government, especially from oil and gas, since the day Sarawak was part of the federation of Malaysia.
“I saw his frustration because I know he was concerned about the amount of revenues taken by the federal government,” said Voon today.
Voon noted that apart from the loss of revenues from taxes collected by the Land Transport, Customs, Inland Revenue, police, judiciary, and other federal government departments, Wong was also very concerned with the amount of revenues from oil and gas taken by Putrajaya.
“Wong and I are neighbours in Kuching. He told the August House (at that time) that we were neighbours and openly invited me, to the laughter of elected representatives of the August House, to come to his house for a cup of coffee so that he could speak to me more about these revenues.
“I wonder until today whether those elected representatives in the August House who laughed at the invitation were concerned about the loss of revenue all these decades.
“For those who laughed at the invitation, how strong is their love for Sarawak? To me, revenue is a serious matter and no one should laugh at it.
“To me Wong was a minister with Sarawak at heart, but he could not do disclose much because of collective responsibility and oath of secrecy,” he said.
Voon pointed out that being the finance minister, Wong was responsible to ensure that the federal government could return to Sarawak the revenues that the state was entitled under the federal constitution.
“I sensed that he poured out his frustration recently by having to leave the Sarawak cabinet after more than 30 years fighting for the restoration of Sarawak’s rights from outside the cabinet where there is more freedom for him to speak.
“Now, being no longer in the cabinet, no one could stop him to disclose to us the revenues collected by the federal government from Sarawak.
“As far as I know since 1974 until today, the federal government reaped RM6,680 billion from just Sarawak’s oil and gas, while the federal government only gave RM35 billion back to Sarawak.
“Are Sarawakians happy with what the state received all these years?”
Voon stressed that from the current political scenario the best thing for Sarawakians to do is to stick with a locally-based opposition party because Malaya-based political parties could not do much to restore Sarawak’s its rights.
