KUCHING, March 18, 2015. - Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan
Satem said Sarawak is lagging behind Malaya "perhaps, because of less
priority given to us before" by the federal government over the last 50 years.
"I will not put it (unfair treatment) in that
way," he told reporters when asked to elaborate on his speech earlier at
the opening of the National Smallholders and Commodities Entrepreneurs
Conference here today.
In his speech, Adenan compared the first class road
network in Malaya to uneven road surfaces in Sarawak.
He said:"Look at Peninsular Malaysia, if we travel
from Johor Bahru in the south to Perlis in the north - possibly it takes about 10 hours or so of
drive - our feet will not get dirty. You will see double highways, first class
roads."
"If you try travelling from Sematan to Lawas, we
feel our backbones are breaking up because of the uneven road surfaces. We have
roads, but the standard is not the same as in Malaya.
This is the truth," he said.
He added:" If you don't fight for Sarawak, nobody
else will. You have to fight otherwise, you will be forgotten. That is why I
have been reiterating .... I need you support.
"If I have the support of more people, the people
that I talk to or discuss with in KL or Petronas, people will say you better
listen to this Adenan. He represents the whole of Sarawak. I will have a loud
support behind me," he said.
He repeated his calls to Sarawakians to give him a chance to rule Sarawak.
"One year is not enough. I need a few more years
with your support. Election or no election, we must speak with one voice.
"There should be no difference among us. That is why
I want differing political parties to come together.
"No need to indulge in fight too much. Don't follow
what happen in Peninsular Malaysia. They fight over petty and trivial matters.
They can learn from us ,instead of us learning from them.
"That is why I need you support so that I can speak
with a louder and convincing voice. Not just election. But thanks anywhere for
voting the Barisan Nasional all this while," he said.
Adenan, who took over as chief minister from Tun Abdul
Taib, on Feb 28 last year, his decision to concentrate his efforts more to
rural areas is to "balas budi" them for their continuous support for
the Barisan Nasional in the past elections.
"If you are looking for the poor people, you go the
rural areas. If you want to see the rich people, go to the urban. That is the
situation in Sarawak," he said, adding
the lack of business and economic opportunities in the rural areas has
led the rural people to migrate to the urban centres in search of better life.
He said more younger generation no longer want to stay in
the rural areas, but migrate to town where the economic opportunities are
available for them to improve their life.
"I want to change that. When you look for support,
in the election or for political support, we look for people who support us.
"In the context of the Barisan Nasional, who are the
people who give us the support during election time? It is the people from the
rural areas.Not the urban people. We lost all the urban seats, but we won all
the rural seats," he said.
He added:" You have been neglected for a very long
time. it is true there are development, but not enough as in the urban."
Adenan also expressed his disappointment that many rural
areas have not been supplied with electricity by the federal Ministry of Rural
Development.
"We should be happy with the reduction in
electricity tariffs by the Sarawak Energy Berhad, but in the rural areas, there
are no electricity so what is there to reduce.
"Sometimes, we see electric cables and electric
posts passing through longhouses and villages from Batang Ai to Kuching, but
these longhouses have no electricity.
"That is what I want to do to provide electricity to
all the rural villages. Give me a chance to lead again. This is not just empty
talk. I have allocated RM300m for rural minor projects, over and above what
have been allocated.
"I told all the Barisan's YBs to spend the money for
the benefit of the people. Don't save, but spend for the people. We are asking
for more fund from the federal ministry of rural development.
"And I think I have convinced the Prime Minister
Datuk Seri Najib Razak that it is justifiable for Sarawak to be given more allocations.
"It is not because we are big in term of land mass, but
we need to connect about 5,000 villages all over Sarawak. Roads, electricity and piped water should be given
first in order of priority. What is the point of installing internet service in
the rural areas when there is no electricity?"
"I know you expect a good government. You deserve a
good government. Our negotiation with Petronas have not succeeded yet on our request
for an increase in oil and gas royalties from 5% to 20%, but it has assured us to award RM2.1 billion of
contracts to Sarawak-based companies.
"We don't people to get our oil and gas, while we
are mere onlookers. We don't want to be spectators, we want to be active
participants on equal partnership. We will pursue the royalties until we
achieve want we want," he said.
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