SARAWAK FOCUS: As the Sarawak state election nears, one can’t help being amused as pledges and promises of new projects and other incentives have started gaining media space and coverage as BN ministers unwrap their bag of goodies for the people.
And are we not familiar with such ‘presents’ which will most likely dissipate into thin air after the polls?
The Health Ministry, via its spokesman Deputy Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya announced a massive project long-promised and ‘delayed or re-scheduled due to one reason or another’ for the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) in Kuching budgeted at a cost of RM351 million!
“It will be carried out under a public-private partnership programme which will include a day-care block (comprising seven operating theatres, four endoscopy rooms as well as wards), a pathology block and a multi-storey carpark,” Dr Hilmi had said.
The carpark itself would have 1,750 parking lots and annexed to it will be a 160-room medi-hotel as well.
This is of course much welcomed news for Kuching folks who have had to suffer in frustration with lengthy periods of time being wasted while either looking for a parking space at present, or having to pay up to RM5 per entry to private car-park vendors sited within walking distance of the SGH. This has been going on for more than 20 years!
The promise of a proper and dedicated car park for the SGH has gone through at least the last three state elections, with the subject being a hot campaign issue especially among the opposition parties.
With this latest repeat of the same pledge, Kuchingites are taking the announcement once again with a pinch of salt and a huge dose of skepticism. Will this new SGH carpark project ever materialise – or is it yet just another re-hashed election promise, to be conveniently swept aside once again when those who had promised it have been returned to office?
Voters also remember that the same promise had been made for the Sri Aman General Hospital, which now sees jungle creepers growing over the signage erected during its much publicised launch (and relaunch!) many years ago.
The project was first approved in 2009 and scheduled for a 2013 completion. When Prime Minister Najib Razak visited the town in 2011, he had repeated the promise by allocating RM150 million for the project (this in itself was a downgrade from an initial promised RM200 million in 2009!) with the new completion date now being 2018.
In April 2015, seven months ago, Simanggang assemblyman Francis Harden had announced that the project was delayed due to the proposed site being only recently confirmed, and also that they have yet to identify a suitable contractor.
The RM50 million discrepancy between the budget and the prime minister’s announced figure had already been spent during the “first phase” of the project.
As at September 2015, DAP’s Sri Aman branch chairman Leon Jimat Donald had said that – “It (the site) is still a jungle and the gates have collapsed after the visit by the PM. Nothing is being done there.”
Such has been the history and record of promises and pledges made from even the prime minister himself, down to the local assemblyman, and one cannot blame the constituents and voters in Kuching and Sri Aman, who have given up on pinning their hopes on such rehashed empty promises!
Needless to say, they will only believe when they actually see these projects coming up!-The Ant Daily
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