Adenan's demise most touching event of 2017 for Sarawak
KUCHING: The tragedy that touched the lives of the people of Sarawak early this year was not the loss of many lives but rather the demise of one person, the leader of the state who had won the hearts and minds of many during his short stewardship Tan Sri Adenan Satem.
The fifth chief minister of Sarawak died on Jan 11 at the Sarawak General Hospital due to heart complications. He was 72.
Adenan, with his unique and unpretentious style, had managed to captivate many with his charisma as soon as he was sworn in as the chief minister in March 2014 and, as a result, the Barisan Nasional succeeded in retaining a firm grip in the “Land of the Hornbills”.
With Adenan at the helm, Sarawak BN captured 72 out of the 82 state seats at stake in the state election last year, which saw the Chinese community coming back to support the state BN.
His untimely demise placed the heavy responsibility of continuing BN’s excellent leadership on the shoulders of his successor, Datuk Patinggi Dr Abang Johari Tun Openg.
Two days after the death of Adenan, Sarawak witnessed a smooth transition of leadership when Abang Johari was sworn in as Sarawak’s sixth chief minister.
The first test for “Abang Jo”, as the new chief minister is fondly known, was to focus on the Tanjung Datu by-election necessitated by the death of Adenan, and Sarawak BN, or more precisely Abang Jo, took the step of fielding Adenan’s widow, Datuk Amar Jamilah Anu, as the candidate.
Abang Johari’s ingenious arrangement proved to be fruitful when the result of the by-election on Feb 18 saw Jamilah garnering 6,443 majority votes compared to the 5,892 majority votes obtained by Adenan in the last state election.
Abang Johari was seen to be constantly injecting fresh ideas to spur the state’s development and among the significant initiatives he undertook was the purchase of the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam from the federal government.
The acquisition of the 2,400MW Bakun Hydroelectric Plant, the largest in the country, was realised around mid-August with the solid support and leadership of Abang Johari.
The agreement to settle the purchase of the Bakun Hydroelectric Plant at a price of RM2.5 billion was finalised and sealed at the Sarawak Hidro office in Selangor and, upon the conclusion of the agreement, SEB Power Sdn Bhd - a whollyowned subsidiary of Sarawak Energy – controlled a 100 per cent stake in SHSB which was previously owned by the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Lands Commissioner.
With the purchase of a fully commissioned hydropower station in July 2014, located at the Rajang River Basin, about 37 km from Belaga town, Sarawak is now poised to become an important source of renewable energy in the country.
Abang Johari said he himself led a delegation from Sarawak to negotiate with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on the acquisition and he attributed the success to the close ties between the state government and Putrajaya.
Not someone to rest on his laurels, he went a step further by mooting the development of the Development Bank of Sarawak (DBOS) in an effort to drive the state’s economic growth through participation in and financing strategic projects, improving dilapidated schools and upgrading the broadband infrastructure.
Broadband infrastructure is undoubtedly Abang Johari’s main agenda to spearhead the development of Sarawak faster through the digital economy by approving the establishment of the Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) to enhance broadband access.
On May 12, the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly made the decision to revoke the membership of Dr Ting Tiong Choon from DAP as the Pujut assemblyman on the grounds that he had dual citizenship, namely Malaysian and Australian.