Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong
KUCHING: Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong will meet Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik very soon to discuss further on the RM1billion contra repayment of Sarawak’s RM2.8 billion debt to the federal government to repair dilapidated schools in Sarawak.
“I will be meeting him to make an appeal. We have so many schools which are dilapidated and schools that need to be relocated due to being affected by flood,” he said when met after the Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus 9th graduation ceremony held at Pullman Kuching yesterday.
“We are still crossing our fingers on this and we can reach a good agreement after this.”
Asked why the federal government changed its mind after initially agreeing to accept the contra repayment Abang Johari said he did not know the reason.
He said in February that the federal government had agreed that a RM1 billion loan repayment from Sarawak would be used to repair dilapidated schools there.
However, Manyin said the federal government later insisted that the RM1billion should be an ‘advance payment’ on loans owned by the Sarawak government.
Asked on if this would make future dealings with the federal government more difficult, he said the Sarawak government hoped for the best and is willing to work with the federal government for the sake of Sarawak’s progress.