Opposition leaders in Sarawak have called on the state government to reveal the total cost of the Kompleks Satria Pertiwi project, as well as a details of how much each item costs, in the name of transparency.
They said the details should include the costs of specific items, such as construction, furnishing, landscaping and consultancy or design fees.
The Satria Pertiwi, the state government’s new administrative complex, also dubbed the “White House of Sarawak”, was declared open by Yang Di Pertua Negeri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar in conjunction with state permier Abang Johari Openg’s birthday on Aug 4.
DAP’s Padungan assemblyman and Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen told FMT the state government should be transparent in its use of public funds.
“The state owes the public a duty to make known how much the building costs. When the government uses public funds, there should be a breakdown of the costs,” he said.
Chong noted that the state government currently lumps funding for projects under “development expenditure”, without a breakdown of costs for specific items.
His party colleague Violet Yong, who is Pending assemblyman, pointed out that if the state government has nothing to hide, “there should be no hesitation in making this information public”.
“Public funds must be spent prudently and in a way that directly benefits the people, not merely to satisfy political vanity,” she told FMT.
The administrative complex, located in Petra Jaya, has a resemblance of the residence and workplace of the US president in Washington DC, earning it the moniker “White House of Sarawak”.
Huge imbalance
On another note, Yong said there is now a huge gap between spending on lavish projects compared with funding to meet urgent needs of rural communities.
“Time and again, we have seen the GPS government pour huge sums of money into high-profile ‘showpiece’ projects while ordinary Sarawakians wait for years, if not decades, for basic infrastructure and essential services,” she said.
“This is the hallmark of a government obsessed with grand image-building at the expense of bread-and-butter issues,” she added.
Yong also criticised Abang Johari for his defence of the project in February when he said the previous government office Wisma Bapa Malaysia was open to the public, thus posing a significant security risk.
“If that is the justification, I must ask: how insecure was it that security could not simply be tightened there?
“More importantly, if it was indeed so insecure, what about all the other government departments still operating there? Are they not also exposed to the same so-called security risks?” she asked.
