Adenan: I need more money to develop Sarawak

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KUALA LUMPUR: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem has a dream for rural areas in Sarawak but he needs more funds to fulfil his dream.

With Putrajaya allocating RM500 million for rural development in Sarawak under Budget 2016, he said he could build more bridges and roads as well as improving the dilapidated state of many rural schools.

“I want to build more bridges which we already have plans but could not do it because we have no money. I also want to build more roads and do many other things.

“The state of our rural schools is terrible. I want to do something about that. And sometimes, you don’t want to depend on the federal government,” he said at the question-and-answer held in conjunction with a townhall session ‘Kamek Ngan CM Adenan’ at Putra World Trade Centre.

A student asked him if Sarawak would be declared a state of harmony since Kuching had been proclaimed as City of Unity last August.

“We have been declared City of Unity as a good example for other cities. If Sarawak can be given that (state of harmony), why not?”

Earlier, Adenan advised Sarawakians not to be influenced by linguistic nationalism that is against advocating the use of English even though Sarawak now wanted to emphasise the use of the international language.

Citing Singapore as an example, he said English isn’t the country’s national language but it had been commonly used.

“In Singapore, the official language is Mandarin and Malay. But everyone speaks English there. So we shall not listen to extreme nationalists.

“We have to be practical, like Singapore, as English is an international language for many fields such as science, literature and philosophy.” Adenan then concluded the session with a statement he had previously made – “There will be no secession of Sarawak from Malaysia. We can have autonomy, but we don’t advocate that (secession).” He stressed: “Malaysia now. Malaysia forever.”