‘PR to build Pan Borneo Highway within five years if elected’

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OFFERING MORALE SUPPORT: Lim giving the thumbs-up to the delicious ‘kampua mee’ at the central market.

SIBU: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng yesterday said a toll-free Pan Borneo Highway would be built from the tip of Kudat in Sabah to Kuching within the next five years if the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) successfully marched into Putrajaya after this general election.

This, he said, was to make up for the lost time when the Barisan Nasional (BN) was at the helm of the federal government.

“Over the last 50 years, BN had neglected the interest of the people of Sarawak and Sabah,” he told reporters at the Sibu Central Market.

With him were Pelawan assemblyman David Wong, DAP’s candidate for Lanang Alice Lau and for Sibu, Oscar Ling Chai Yew.

Lim said the money to build the highway could be sourced from the oil royalty which PR had promised to increase from the current five per cent to 20 per cent.

“We have stated clearly in our manifesto that if PR wins, the oil royalty would be increased from five per cent to 20 per cent,” he said.

Corruption, he claimed, was still the biggest problem Sarawak is facing.

He corroborated, “Sarawak is one of the richest states in natural resources but also one of the poorest states in the country.”

Pledging to wipe out poverty in Sarawak within five years, he said, “What the BN government had failed to do in 50 years, we will do it within five years.”

He said the people could find proof of this in the progress in Penang under the PR government.

The Dayaks in Sarawak could expect a RM1 billion allocation from PR government to improve their living standard, he said.

Earlier, during a walkabout at the central market, Lim was warmly greeted by the people.