KUCHING, March 18 — The planning by the Singapore government in securing the exclusive Southeast Asian hosting of Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras’ world tour could be a good thing that Sarawak should emulate from.

In pointing this out, Julau MP Datuk Larry Sng hailed the success of the sold-out concert as ‘indication of Singapore planning its expenditure well’.

“Sarawak can follow what Singapore did.

“There is a need for Sarawak to emulate such strategy to maximise the benefits for its people.

“Singapore spent ‘small money’ to attract large amounts of tourists,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday, which Sng attached with a photo of the singer-songwriter and the headline ‘Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour In Singapore Has Profited About RM1.7 Billion In Tourism’.

However, the parliamentarian did not write only good things about the subject.

In his opinion, had Malaysia been given the right to host Swift’s concert, certain quarters would play it out to become a religious issue.

“Everything somehow gets tied to race or religion in Malaysia, and while Sarawak does not have such hang-up, that doesn’t mean that Sarawak doesn’t have issues,” he said.

Adding on, Sng said in view of Sarawak being blessed with abundant resources and wealth, the state leaders must also be cautious about overspending, especially on unnecessary mega projects, which would only benefit certain groups rather than the people as a whole.

In his post, the Julau MP highlighted the plan to build two power transmission lines — one to Singapore, and the other to peninsular Malaysia — when one would have probably been sufficient.

“We also must be mindful that it’s because of overspending that the country today is in huge debts — a problem that our future generation will inherit from our bad decisions.

“The state government should look into salvaging the existing ‘sick’ projects, which I have been made to understand, are running into billions of ringgit.

“On the whole, I feel that Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) is doing a good job, but I believe that they can do better,” said Sng. — The Borneo Post