Media statement by Dr. Hiew King Cheu in Kota Kinabalu on Sunday, 19^th June 2011:

Supplementary Supply Bill 2011

The Parliament has received an application to apply for a sum from the Consolidated Fund for additional expenditure for the service of the year 2011 and to appropriate that sum for certain purposes for the year. The sum applied for is RM13,186,713,000.

Some of the amount requested for certain purposes are highly questionable and not reasonable. For example, under the Prime Minister department (JPM), they had asked for a sum of RM 5 million for the purpose of paying the cost of operation and maintenance of Pulau Sipadan. The comes as a surprise because Sipadan Island is such a small island with some tourists visiting and without inhabitants, and what is the reason to put such a large operating and maintenance cost on the island. It is an instruction given a few years back by the Sabah Chief Minister who said that there should be no activities on construction and development on the island. The island must be preserved as natural as it can be, because this is a special natural heritage.

The sum of RM 5 million is in fact too high for the simple job of maintaining and to cover what ever operation cost there is to keep the small island clean. We cannot see that there is any other cost involved. As far as we know there is a few police personal stationing on the island.

The Ministry of Defense had asked for a sum of RM 417,641,000 for the purpose of "In Service Support" for the two Scorpene Submarines with the Malaysian Navy. There is also a request for an addition sum of RM56,616,000 as an advance payment to implement to render the service of the system on "Submarine Escape Rescue Intervention (SMER-1) for the submarine with the Navy.

Why are we paying such a huge sum on the submarine and in fact these should be included in the original sum of RM1.3 Billion when we first purchased the submarines. The sum of money applied for is not justified, and this can not be approved.

There are many other questionable requests for money in the supplementary bill which is highly disputable and not reasonable. We should be looking at saving but not throwing the public money into some items which are termed to be no urgency and no immediate need. The RM13 billion could be saved for the purpose of helping many people in need of assistance and especially the hardcore poor and the bad infrastructures in Sabah.

The whole supplementary bill can also be classified as an "election bill". This could be a hint that the election date would not be to far from now. The people should keep a clear mind to see whether the present BN government is to be given a continue support based. Pakatan Rakyat members of parliament will definitely not support this Supplementary Bill.

* Dr Hiew King Cheu, MP for Kota Kinabalu