TAR KOLEJ

OPPOSITION'S SMEARING CAMPAIGN STOPPED TAR COLLEGE PROJECT - DR CHAN
Bernama - Thursday, May 21
KUCHING, May 20 (Bernama) -- The opposition's smearing campaign and bribery allegations over the proposed setting up of Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) college in Bintangor, derailed the project as Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing felt discouraged, said Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said today.
Dr Chan, who is also Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) president said, as far as the proposed college was concerned, SUPP expressed its full support since it was the party's and Barisan Nasional's (BN) policy to encourage and assist the private sector to set up higher learning institutions at affordable costs for the local community.
"Unfortunately I was informed by Ting that during and after the parliamentary election last year, there was a series of smearing campaigns alleging him (Ting) of using the TAR college proposal to hoodwink the public," said the State Modernisation of Agriculture Minister in his winding up speech at the State Legislative Assembly sitting here today.
To make matters worst, he said, DAP's defeated candidate Dr Wong Hua She had in April last year, filed an election petition at the Sibu High Court, alleging Ting used the proposed college as a "bribe" during the elections.
Any planning or development, thereafter, relating to the college could be construed as subjudice during the election petition trial while Ting Tze Fui (DAP-Meradong) had also attacked Ting for lying to the people, he said.
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ASSEMBLY-SARAWAK (TAR COLLEGE) 2 (LAST) KUCHING
Dr Chan said the public should know that it was DAP who "put a spanner in the wheel" and jeopardised the project but SUPP as a political party would continue to seek alternatives to help the Meradong people especially when it convinced Curtin University and Swineburne University to come to Sarawak.
"Ting had also reiterated that if BN approves a technical college in Bintangor, he would still donate his land for education purposes," he said.
He said, when Ting initiated the setting up of the TAR college, BN leaders, including former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and himself, had given the blessing, especially when the former volunteered to donate land with an estimated value of RM40 million, and to contribute up to 50 percent of the construction costs.
He also set the record straight on the experts engaged to study the seasonal flooding problems in Kuching division, adding that, on the initiative of SUPP members, experts from China were brought in to review and assess the various studies already being undertaken by the government.
The experts from Synohydro Corporation, who had undertaken similar professional assignments in Thailand and the Philippines, were appointed by the state government to review all the 10 studies, which are now used as the basis for the implementation of the city's flood mitigation scheme, he said.
-- BERNAMA