Ministers welcome in Sarawak but don't lecture us

COMMENT | Lim Guan Eng must have forgotten that he is the finance minister at times. He must still be thinking that he is in the opposition DAP and relishes launching tirades at his political opponents at every given opportunity.

This was obviously the case when the DAP secretary-general spoke at the Sarawak DAP fund-raising dinner in Kuching last week.

The event, themed “Sarawak, Here We Come”, was apparently part of the DAP’s preparation for the coming state election, due in July 2021.

In his ceremah-style speech, Lim lambasted the GPS government, saying that Sarawak would be bankrupt in three years, noting that its annual budget was RM11 billion out of the state’s reserves of RM30 billion. He possibly presumed the state had not planned to generate income.

Following his remarks, the finance minister was ticked off by several GPS leaders, including Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg, who called Lim a lousy accountant and bad economist.

Others asked Lim to act like a finance minister and stop making childish statements like a schoolboy who is bad at mathematics...