Damansara MP Tony Pua (3rd right) poses for a photo at the Cendana award ceremony at Publika Shopping Gallery in Kuala Lumpur July 26, 2018. — Picture by Azneal Ishak

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — The government needs to dedicate its financial resources towards bringing the country’s debts and liabilities under control, DAP MP Tony Pua told the arts community hopeful of fresh funding today.

The special officer to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said he understood artistes’ need for financial support, but noted that Malaysia was currently dealing with over RM1 trillion in debts and liabilities.

“With funding being the main issue with the arts industry, at this point in time, it must take a backseat,” said the Damansara MP during the Cultural Economy Development Agency (Cendana) award ceremony at Publika Shopping Gallery here today.

Pua said Pakatan Harapan also needed to reverse the damage from previous administrations.

“There is a lot of mud and muck that we have to deal with every day. From contracts that we cannot afford to contracts that we cannot make sense of and projects that we need but have been overly inflated like the LRT3 (Light Rail Transit line 3) project,” he said.

This comes after the revelation that the LRT3 project in its original specification would cost RM31.65 billion in total despite the initial budget of RM10 billion.

However, Pua told the arts community that the government will do its best to ensure that the arts scene flourishes both locally and abroad.

“We do wish to do more but give us a bit of time we do want to take the arts to much, much greater heights,” he said.