MIRI: The plan by the opposition pact to set up a RM1-billion Dayak endowment fund if it wins the next Sarawak state election is a mere promise to garner the people’s votes, Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan said yesterday.
He said the promise also reflected the opposition’s lack of understanding of the actual need of the multiracial society in Sarawak.
“In Sarawak, we don’t help people based on race but based on need,” he told reporters after handing over contributions under the National Key Results Area (NKRA) ‘Gempur’ programme and the Welfare Services Department’s Chinese New Year aid to 182 people here.
Dr Chan, who is also a deputy chief minister, said the state Barisan Nasional (BN) government had long formed the Sarawak Foundation with the objective of raising the economic and educational standards of the people.
“Yayasan (Sarawak Foundation) is for everybody. Who needs it (assistance) more, we will give it regardless of their racial background,” he added. Dr Chan expressed concern over the opposition’s desperation to win votes in the next state election with promises that disregarded the harmonious life enjoyed by Sarawakians of diverse racial background. He said the opposition, in the long run, would only divide the people in the state.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had announced the opposition pact’s plan to set up the fund after opening the Sarawak DAP branch’s 15th annual general convention in Kuching yesterday.
He had said that the fund was “to redress the gross neglect, improve the economic welfare and uplift the educational standard of the Dayak community”. — Bernama