Batu Kawah service centre did not receive Covid food aid funds in 2020, court told

KUCHING (Dec 12): The High Court here was told yesterday that Deputy Premier Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian’s Batu Kawah service centre did not receive any Covid-19 food aid funds from the Sarawak government in 2020.

Testifying in his defamation suit filed against Democratic Action Party Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen, Dr Sim said the government through the Divisional Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) had a more comprehensive list of the poor and needy which was systematically organised to avoid repetition.

The Batu Kawah assemblyman said this during cross-examination by the defendant’s counsel Chong Siew Chiang, who asked if the purchase and distribution of essential food to poor and needy families at the time of Movement Control Order (MCO) could be achieved more effectively by several assemblymen’s service centres than just by the Batu Kawah service centre.

“Disagree, because the Batu Kawah service centre never received any funding for the purchase and distribution of the essential food to the poor and needy families from the Sarawak government,” said Dr Sim.

He also disagreed when Siew Chiang put it to him that during the MCO period, the non-Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) assemblymen or their respective service centres should have been granted the same opportunity of using the RM200,000 food aid fund allocation to purchase food for distribution to the needy.

“Disagree, because no one, be it GPS assemblymen or their respective service centres or non-GPS assemblymen or their respective service centres, were granted any money for the food aid.

“All the money was channelled to DDMC,” said Dr Sim, who is Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president.

In 2020, Dr Sim filed the defamation suit over Chong’s allegation that the deputy premier had failed to manage food aid funds worth RM800,000 meant for four opposition-held state constituencies at the time, namely Padungan, Batu Lintang, Pending and Kota Sentosa.

Dr Sim is represented by Shankar Ram who is assisted by Yu Ying Ying and Russell Lim, while Chong is represented by Michael Kong, Siew Chiang and Brenda Chong.

The defamation suit which is heard before judge Dr Alwi Abdul Wahab continues today.