Monday, March 15

E-Kasih or e-pilih programme?

Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Shahrizat Abdul Jalil last week briefed the State Government on the E-kasih programme to be carried out in Sarawak.

Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu, Land Development Minister James Masing and Social Development and Urbanisation Minister William Mawan were among those present.

The programme is under the Prime Minister’s Department.

During the briefing, it is reliably learnt that Shahrizat was under fire by Taib and other leaders as her programme did not cover more areas.

Why places like Beruit and other coastal and interior areas were excluded?

They told her and her officers to travel throughout the State.

And her figure of 11,000 plus hardcore in the State caused the audience to stand up and demand an explanation.

Sarawak, being the second poorest State in Malaysia, may have over 200,000 hardcore poor out of 2.4 million people, if the poverty line of RM720 comes into account.

It is obvious that Federal Ministers need to visit Sarawak more often in order to know in depth the problems of the people, their needs and their culture.

And they should visit longhouses and villages where there are nor electricity, clean water and basic amenities.

That is why The Broken Shield did not agree with the visit of Prime Minister Najib last month to Rumah Juliana, Saratok where rooms in the longhouse are air-conditioned. Najib should have seen longhouses that are no better than cowsheds.

We hope therefore that E-kasih programme should not be turned into an election programme or become E-pilih (selected based on their political leaning). - The Broken Shield

Source: www.thebrokenshield.blogspot.com

5 comments:

Banting said...

When you have done something real good for the people, you would expect in sincere appreciation of your help from the people.I think Sharizat hoped very mush to be praised by BN state leaders for her e-kasih programme in the state to give welfare aids to help the hardcore poor families in Sarawak, instead she was under fire by Taib during the briefing as alleged by the Broken Shield. I know how she feels.

Perhaps the controversial report on sexual abuse of Penan women has still fresh in the minds of the state BN leaders when Shahrizat had concluded that such abuse report was true, while Jabu Numpang questioned the credibility of the report by the taskforce set up by the Ministry of Woman, Family and Community Development of which Shahrizat is the minister. Indirectly, the state BN leaders wanted Shahrizat to be more careful in future when talking about Sarawak, I guess.

It seems that the state government is sensitive to any report made by the government departments and ministries that does not suit to their satisfaction. For instance, the Auditor General`s report on the state government for poor in managing its forest which had led to river pollution, erosion, landslides and the destruction of flora and fauna. The state government even accused the AG`s office no expert in forest management and wanted AG to amend the report.

Now the state government admitted that are still many hardcore poor in rural areas and lack of basic amenities, but all this while they claimed that Sarawak has developed tremendously and not a single race in Sarawak would be left out from enjoying the benefits of the politics of development. " When we want to implement development plan, we want to benefit all our people." said Taib. But until now, why so many of rural communities in Sarawak have no specific need facilities such as electricity, water supply and roads etc?

Anonymous said...

Dont forget sarawak has the most richest ybs, yabs in malaysia too !!!! So sarawak should not be 2nd poorest state

Hopeless Ikan masing said...

And also sarawak has the most frog farms.

Anonymous said...

Sepatutnya PM Najib melawat Kampung atau Rumah Panjang yang serba kekurangan seperti di pendalaman (tidak ada jalan di tar, eletrik dan air paip yang ditapis). Kenapa melawat Kampung/Rumah Panjang yang serba moden?

Hopeless Ikan masing said said...

and sarawak has the most langau too.... who likes to kiaw-kiaw over the rotten meat.