I have chided our Economy Minister, Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli who had listed Sarawak as one of the 6 poorest states in Malaysia including Sabah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis. I was interviewed by our local media friends on this matter after Sarawak together with other “poorest states” were warned not to expect allocations from the Federal Government alone.
According to the learned Datuk Seri Rafizi, efforts to narrow the poverty gap is a shared responsibility that must be shouldered by the respective state governments in order to attract investment and business. He had also mentioned that the allocation to the 6 poorest states in our country which hd been maintained is much more than others.
Of course it is not right to put Sarawak as one of the poorest states in Malaysia simply because we have billions of ringgit in our coffers and not forgetting the rich natural resources which we posses that had not been fully discovered nor tapped. I have mentioned that probably such label was based on the large number of “e-kasih” applicants which had been registered in Sarawak previously and that the relevant authorities should revisit such registration.
Nevertheless, Sarawak has a lot of rural folks who are actively involved in agriculture and its downstream activities but what they are lacking is the documentary proofs of their monthly earnings from such economic activities. I have mentioned that there are kampung folks in the Asajaya constituency who have earned up to RM10,000 monthly but they do not have “salary slips” to prove their lucrative earnings from working on their lands and farms. Some can even earned RM5,000 a month which is far more than the average full time wage earners and sadly these farmers do not have “salary slips” to prove their monthly incomes.
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