Abang Johari delivers his speech prior to the launch of Medan Selera Lundu, as Najib (seated, second right) looks on. With the premier are (seated front, from right) Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, State Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar, Ministers in Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun and Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri, and Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh. Seated behind them, from right, are Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah (partially hidden), Local Government Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian, Assistant Minister for Tourism Datuk Lee Kim Shin, Assistant Minister for Early Childhood Education and Family Development Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, and Opar assemblyman Dato Ranum Mina.
LUNDU: Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg wants breaches of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) to be redressed ‘as fast as possible’ so as to ‘right the wrong in the past 22 years’.
He said the federal government had centralised a lot of powers ‘in the past 22 years’ and executing MA63 based on the original terms would be merely righting the wrong.
“We are not asking a lot, we just want to right the wrong. I will continue Tok Nan’s (his predecessor the late Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem) efforts to negotiate with the federal government.
“When we negotiate, we do it based on trust as we are just getting back what we lost along the way,” he said before Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak declared open Medan Selera Lundu here yesterday.
Abang Johari added that Sarawak would have lost more powers had it not been for Najib who had agreed to a review.
He said the late Adenan had requested for a review of MA63 and Najib concurred by saying ‘Okay, we share with Sarawak’.
He also informed Najib that the people here had a problem with water supply issue in the hope of the prime minister announcing good news to the community.
“We want to make Lundu a tourist centre but water supply is a problem. There is water… but just dripping. We want to see water gushing from the taps.”
To this, Najib pledged a RM129 million allocation for water supply projects in Tanjong Datu and Tasik Biru.
Abang Johari had announced that 600 projects worth over RM863 million would be implemented in Tanjong Datu during the launch of the by-election manifesto on Thursday.
“In fact, after going through the information again, the 600 projects for Tanjong Datu are actually worth RM1.3 billion.”
He added that he would carry on with Adenan’s legacy to develop not just Tanjong Datu but the whole of Sarawak.
He thus called on voters in Tanjong Datu to cast their votes in droves on Feb 18 as Barisan Nasional wanted to see a big mandate.
“Come out in big numbers on Feb 18 to give a big mandate to our candidate. Some may not come down to vote because they know we can win. Ya lah, we will win and we know we will. But we want voters to come out to vote.”
BN candidate Datin Patinggi Datuk Amar Jamilah Anu is expected to retain Tanjong Datu in a three-cornered fight with Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru’s Rapelson Richard Hamit and State Reform Party’s Johnny Aput on Feb 18.
The seat fell vacant following the demise of Adenan, who was the fifth chief minister of Sarawak, on Jan 11.