Sarawak DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen today accused the state government of Sarawak of playing with statistics in order to give a rosy picture of the state’s economy.

 

It had projected of Sarawak’s per capita income increasing to RM100,000 by the year 2030.

 

“This means nothing to an average Sarawakian,” said Chong.

 

The state assemblyperson for Kota Sentosa and MP for Bandar Kuching said that for the year 2013, the official figure for Sarawak’s per capita income as announced by Chief Minister Taib Mahmud ( left ), was RM41,000. 

 

“But this figure differs greatly from the figure that I obtained in Parliament in July, 2013, which was that the gross national income (GNI) per capita for Malaysia was RM33,000,” said Chong. 

 

“Sarawak’s GNI per capita is lower than the Malaysia’s average and surely falls far short of the RM41,000 as claimed by the state.

“More importantly, the greater concern is on the distribution of the income among the people.

"With the reported figure of RM41,000 income per capita, this would imply that for a family of four (the average number of people per household in Sarawak), the family income per household would be RM164,000 per annum.

"But about 99 percent of Sarawak families do not have such a high income level,” he asserted.

 

Quoting from the latest household income survey conducted in 2012, he said the average household income for Malaysians is RM5,000 per month while the average household income for Sarawakians per month is RM4,293.

 

Accordingly, the annual household income for Sarawak in year 2012 was only RM50,000. 

 

“The only explanation is that the main bulk of income is in the hands of less than one percent of the population,” he said.

 

Explanation owed

Chong added the Taib administration owes the people of Sarawak an explanation for the discrepancy in the reported figures by the federal government and the state government, and on the concentration of wealth in a handful.

 

He added that the income disparity between the rich and the poor will only widen given its present policy which only favours the cronies and family members of the political leaders.

 

“Given such huge disparity of income, even if the projected figure of RM100,000 per capita becomes a reality, more than 99 percent of the population will miss out on it. 

 

“Therefore, I call on the state government to stop playing with statistics, stop painting a rosy picture of the economy and instead address the real issue - which is that the income of the general public can hardly meet the cost of living,” he said.