2012-11-21 Debate on Budget Speech

Terima kasih kepada Tuan Speaker, terlebih dahulu saya ingin membangkitkan beberapa isu dalam Budget Speech ini.

Jerebu

Tuan Speaker, Isu yang pertama ialah masalah jerebu amatlah serius berlaku di Miri dan daerah lain di Sarawak. Masalah jerebu ini turut akan berlaku setiap tahun. Indeks Pencemaran Udara(IPU) dicatatkan di  Miri adalah 164 iaitu pada tahap yang tidak sihat. Menurut Menteri Sumber Asli dan Alam Sekitar bahawa tidak lagi mengeluarkan lesen dan permit pembakaran terbuka sempena Ogos tahun ini tetapi Mengapa kami masih dapat lihat Syarikat Perladangan besar sering kali membakar secara haram di beberapa tempat sepanjang Coaster Highway dan sebahagian jalan raya Kuala Baram? Mengapa di Sarawak termasuk Miri masih lagi terdapat banyak isu pembakaran haram? Masalah jerebu ini masih kerap menjadi isu ketara di Sarawak. Akibat daripada masalah pembakaran haram ini, aktiviti-aktiviti bersukan di semua peringkat sekolah terpaksalah diberhentikan dan bagi mereka yang menghidapi penyakit Asma terpaksa menghidu asap yang meloyakan. Pesakit-pesakit Asma mungkin akan mengharungi kesesakan nafas dan mengakibatkan kematian.

Lantaran itu, apakah tindakan yang sewajarnya bagi pihak kerajaan untuk menangani masalah ini? Berapa buah Syarikat Besar yang dikenakan saman oleh pihak kerajaan setakat ini? Pihak kerajaan telah mengeluarkan berapa saman dan mengenakan jumlah wang saman kepada Syarikat Besar yang menjalankan aktiviti pembakaran haram?

Pihak kerajaan boleh menyiasat nama Syarikat Besar yang menjalankan aktiviti pembakaran secara haram. Seterusnya, mengenakan denda/saman yang berat terhadap Syarikat berkenaan. Bagi para petani haram yang menjalankan pembakaran di kawasan larangan untuk tujuan aktiviti pertanian secara haram, pihak kerajaan juga harus mengambil tindakan yang tegas terhadap mereka.

Sarang Burung Walit Di Sarawak

Tuan Speaker, pengeksportan Sarang Burung Walit di Sarawak telah mendapatkan hasil pendapatan tahunan negara yang lumayan dengan permintaan yang tinggi dari luar negara.  Di Sarawak mempunyai hasil pungutan sarang burung walit sekurang-kurangnya 50 tan metrik yang merupakan RM250juta hasil pendapatan tahunan.  Sehubungan itu, di Sarawak industri  ini mempunyai potensi yang amat besar. Sarawak mempunyai premis sarang burung walit kira-kira 5 ribu buah.  Bagi kos pembinaan setiap premis sarang burung walit dijangka ialah RM300,000.  Namun, kebanyakan pemilik atau pengusaha yang berjaya dalam proses pengambilan hasil pungutan sarang burung walit ini adalah hanya di antara 20%(peratus) dan 30%(peratus).  Justeru itu, kita berharap kerajaan Sarawak boleh mendorong dan melonggarkan pengeluaran lesen menternak sarang burung walit.  

Sejak setahun lalu,  Malaysia sedang menghadapi masalah pengeksportan produk sarang burung walit ke China.  Kini, harga sekilo sarang burung walit mentah belum bersih telah merosot dari  RM4,200 kepada kira-kira RM1,500 sahaja. Memandangkan isu ini, Kerajaan Sarawak digesa untuk membantu pemilik atau pengusaha tempatan mudah bagi memperolehi lesen menternak dan pengekportan sarang burung walit mentah belum bersih ke luar negara.

Dengan permintaan yang tinggi terhadap sarang burung walit mentah belum bersih dari  China dan China juga merupakan perkilangan terbesar untuk memproses sarang burung walit mentah belum bersih. Bagi Sarawak tetap tidak mampu dalam memproses sarang burung walit mentah belum bersih yang disebabkan oleh masalah kekurangan tenaga buruh.  kebanyakan pemilik tempatan kini  masih beroperasi tetapi mendapat kerugian besar kerana kesukaran memperolehi lesen pengeksportan.  Bagi keadilan Sarawakian, situasi Sarawak amatlah berbeza dengan Semenanjung Malaysia, jadi  lesen pengeksportan ini sepatutnya dikawal oleh kerajaan Sarawak tanpa campur tangan dari Kerajaan Persekutuan Malaysia.  Sekiranya kerajaan Sarawak tidak menyelesaikan isu ini dengan segera, maka  produk sarang burung walit di Sarawak akan dijual  secara haram ke Indonesia dan pengusaha Indonesia akan mengambil kesempatan ini untuk menjual kepada negara lain dengan nilai yang lebih tinggi.  Bagi pengusaha dari Sarawak pula, akan lebih cenderung membuat perlaburan dalam bidang ini di Indonesia. Akibat daripadanya, pihak kerajaan dan pengusaha tempatan akan mengalami kerugian yang besar.     

Rubbish Collection Services In Miri

Tuan Speaker, Rubbish Collection Services are getting worse in Miri City recently. Residents were complaining about the late and erratic rubbish collection by the Rubbish Contractors whose poor performance have resulted in unsightly heaps and foul smell in so many areas in Miri City. The stray dogs and cats are scavenging for food in the rubbish.  The uncollected garbage was scattered around and the mounting pile of uncollected rubbish behind a commercial centre has been affecting the shopkeepers’ business due to the unattended waste lying around which would attract flies, rats and other creatures which may lead to unhygienic conditions and thereby to a rise in health problem.

Many residents also claimed that the refuse service had not been regular like before and on several occasions rubbish were not collected for two weeks. Everyone is fuming at the filthy rubbish. It is also a shame for Miri City when those foreigners who arrive are greeted by the ugly heaps of garbage.

Tuan Speaker, Poor rubbish collection service has been happening since few months ago. Rubbish collection is one of the important services provided by the Local authorities such as Miri City Council. Why is this problem persists until now?

As a capable Mayor, he should have an awareness of the root cause of the problem.  Nevertheless, the mayor and one of the assistant Ministers claimed that the ugly heaps of garbage in certain areas were caused by the outsiders (ie. Residents from other areas) who brought volume of rubbish and simply dumped anyway beside the dumpsters. They urged the residents nearby to take photo so as to provide evidence to enable the council to take action against the “litterbugs” and outsiders.

The cause of the problem is actually due to the late and erratic rubbish collection service. The excuse given by the mayor and the assistant minister might give the public an impression that the council is biased and try to cover the contractor up, thus the public would have a strong aversion to the council. Under these circumstances, it is doubtful that the public would play a supporting role to the council. When the contractors were not able to provide good and regular services, the residents were agitated because heaps of garbage in front of their houses caused foul smell. The council should appreciate free services provided by residents who voluntarily deliver their rubbish to the dumpsters instead of labelling them as “litterbugs”.

Tuan Speaker. It is ridiculous to differentiate rubbish by zone, for example the rubbish in zone A cannot throw into zone B. The council should place more dumspters as possible for the convenience to the public and thus discourage dropping rubbish to another area.

The public complained that the government never allocates any place for them to dump waste material such as used tyres and construction waste materials. The government should learn from other developed nations how they would recycle their waste materials to avoid pollution.

When facing heaps of uncollected rubbish everyday,  Miri City Council should have to establish its own in-house service team for rubbish collection. Whereby the contractor fails to collect the rubbish then the team can be deployed to that area. Miri City Council can also take back one or two zones for its own service team to carry out the job.

I  hope Miri City Council can learn a lesson from this experience and this business should not be monopolised in the future.  At last, I urged our State Government should monitor closely on this critical issue.

Privatization of Miri parking

Tuan Speaker, The Mayor of Miri city clarified that the city’s car parks will not be privatised. He said, “According to the information quoted from wikipedia, privatization is the process of transferring ownership of public service, public property from the public sector to the private sector. Since renting out all the car parks in Miri to private sector doesn’t involve transferring of MCC’s property to private sector, therefore it is not privatising, but outsourcing.”

That was not totally correct. Tuan Speaker. According to the Wikipedia the term privatization can also mean that  government is outsourcing  services or functions from the public sector to the private firms, for example revenue collection. So what MCC doing now is exactly defined by the wikipedia --- privatization of its parking fees collection.

The majority of Miri people are generally against the idea of privatization of the parking fees collection policy because of the fear that the service of MCC will also be compromised.

According to the Mayor, there will be no retrenchment of parking wardens, and private firm has no authority to carry out enforcement duty. Based on the information provided by MCC, the total amount of parking fees collection is RM3.4million for the year 2011. At the same year, the expenditures of staff salary, increment, bonus, overtime, transportation and uniform is over 3 million. After deducting all other expenses, MCC parking department still made a loss of RM900 thousand in 2011.

After tendering out all the parking bays, the contractor will just need to pay about RM1million to MCC. However, the other expenses will still remain the same, and there will be no retrenchment of the parking attendants. It means after the privatization of parking fees collection department, the revenue of MCC will be decreased by RM2 million. Doesn’t it mean that the losses will even higher? The losses will be amounting to RM2.9 million.

The private firm need not do much work after the privatization of Miri parking. They only need to sit there and collect the fees from the public, and then leave the parking wardens of MCC to carry out all of the duties, for example to check and issue compound to the violator.

Tuan Speaker, there are 8288 total in number of parking spaces in Miri City. If all of the parking spaces are fully occupied and 100% of parking fees can be collected, the cash collection can be up to RM10 million a year. A 10 million business to be tendered out for only ONE million RM, only 10% of its total value. This can be ridiculous.

Tuan Speaker, what is the logic behind? Why privatising a government business to make more financial losses? Unless.... there is hanky-panky around !!!

Accident prone junction

Tuan Speaker, there is an accident prone junction at Miri Airport Road / Jalan Cahaya junction. So Many fatal accidents had happened at this junction during the past few years. An urgent correction need to be done before the next fatality occurs.

The reasons for the accidents are because the Miri Airport Road is a dual carriageway with high traffic volume and the traffic from airport side wishing to turn into Jalan Cahaya has to queue for a long time and try to get a SAFE chance to cross into Jalan Cahaya. With the high traffic volume, the only way to cross the road is to risk their lives as cars need to dash across even when opposite traffic is within meters away. This risky maneuver should not be encouraged.

Jalan Cahaya is also a main road with heavy traffic load. In addition to servicing the hospital, there is also a school, numerous housing estates and also traffic from the Miri By-pass. Cars turning towards the city need to reach the Hilltop junction before U-turning back towards the city and this causes a long queue of cars. It may cause the blocking of traffic heading towards the airport or undue delay for emergency ambulance heading towards the hospital.

The above-mentioned junction should be upgraded either to build a roundabout or install a traffic light system. If these can be done, the major problems should be greatly resolved.

I understand there was a proposal of installing a traffic light system which has been turned down on the ground that the airport road and Jalan Cahaya has a slight incline at this junction. This rejection reason will surprise many people as major cities like Auckland in New Zealand has rows of traffic lights installed at even steeper areas. The other excuse may be that there is a ravine at the opposite site of the road and it may incur extra cost to fill this area.

However, it is worthwhile if we consider the pain of losing life, and with the daily increasing of traffic load who knows who will be the next victim.

Masalah rumah setinggan Di Miri

Tuan Speaker, Sarawak merupakan sebuah wilayah yang terkaya dengan bahan-bahan mentah seperti getah, kelapa sawit, kayu balak dan minyak mentah di Malaysia. Mengikut Laporan Audit, Sarawak mempunyai wang cadangan(reserve fund) sebanyak  RM18 billion setakat ini. Sememangnya, Sarawakian merupakan orang terkaya di Malaysia. Malangnya, Sarawak masih banyak penduduk yang  hidup dalam kemiskinan. Sehingga kini, terdapat  bilangan besar bagi Sarawakian masih tidak mampu membeli atau menyewa rumah sendiri. Jadi terdapat sejumlah besar penduduk ini terpaksa membina rumah setinggan di merata-rata tempat. Sebagai contoh Bandar Miri masih wujud lebih daripada 4 ribu rumah setinggan dan diikuti Bintulu dan Kuching.  Tambahan pula, rumah setinggan ini juga tidak ada bantuan kemudahan asas seperti bekalan air, elektrik dan tandas yang sempurna. Kami sebagai penduduk yang terkaya di Malaysia berasa malu apabila melihat kejijikan ini.

Tuan Speaker, setakat ini apakah langkah yang wajar diambil oleh kerajaan untuk menolong golongan yang tidak berkemampuan ini? Selain itu, dalam usaha membendung kehadiran masalah rumah setinggan, pihak kerajaan adalah wajarnya memperbanyakkan projek pembinaan perumahan kos rendah. Pihak berkuasa seharusnya mendaftarkan jumlah bilangan penduduk rumah setinggan ini terlebih dahulu supaya boleh bersedia menempatkan mereka.

Tuan Speaker, Menurut  Pengerusi SUPP daripada Barisan National telah mengugut penduduk kampung bahawa  pembangunan di  Miri akan diberhentikan sekiranya DAP mendapat kemenangan dua kerusi dalam pilihan raya yang lalu. Adakah ini benar? Sebelum pilihan raya yang lalu, Adakah DAP menang di Miri?  Jadi semua adalah dalam naungan Barisan National SUPP. Mengapa masih terdapat  masalah-masalah seperti yang telah saya bangkitkan wujud di Miri? Ini bukankah dapat mencerminkan undi Barisan National tidak berfaedah? 

Sekian terima kasih.