“It is heartening to know that after 55 years, the leaders in the state government have finally realised and acknowledged the real situation of Sarawak and Sarawakians.

“It is not too late to admit that we are left far behind. However, the irony of this situation is that the GPS politicians conveniently overlook the fact that this is the legacy created by their own former best friends – Umno and BN, of which GPS had been a part of for 55 years,” said Baru in his debate speech on the Sarawak Budget 2019 at the Sarawak legislative assembly sitting here today.

Baru, who is Ba’kelalan assemblyman and Selangau MP, pointed out that schools in Sarawak did not become dilapidated overnight, nor did the roads linking the town with rural villages in the state suddenly become inadequate since Pakatan Harapan (PH) won the elections.

Rather, he argued, they had been neglected for the past 55 years.

“If only the GPS leaders had woken up earlier and had been wise and bold enough to speak up to their Umno and BN masters, Sarawak would perhaps not be in such dire straits.”

He commented that in the chief minister’s budget speech and in the comments by other GPS leaders after the federal budget was tabled, a common theme was that the allocation set aside by Putrajaya for Sarawak was insufficient.

“These critics do not want to concede that the new government is only six months old and have had to grapple with crippling debts incurred by the man hailed by the same GPS leaders only a year ago as the ‘best ever’ prime minister,” he said, referring to Najib Razak.

He said the finance minister had said in his budget speech that the national debt stood at RM1.065 trillion, which was RM350 billion more than what the previous government admitted to.

He added that the government had to repay income tax refunds of RM37 billion that were never repaid by the previous government.