More to be done to close up devt gap in Sarawak, assures PM

KUCHING: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has assured Sarawakians that a lot more would be done to zero out the development gap in the state.

He said as the prime minister, he would want to see every corner of the country – from Perlis to Sabah and Sarawak – to be fairly and equally developed.

He said should there be any area in Sarawak that is still behind others, it would be his responsibility as prime minister to rectify this so that there would be no more development gap.

“In this context, you don’t have to worry because I am a good friend of Sarawak,” he spoke at the opening of the 14th Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Convention here yesterday.

According to Najib, also the federal Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, Sarawak deserves big allocations from the federal government because it is a huge state.

He said initially he had thought Pahang was big, but Sarawak was even bigger in that there would be many long bridges slated for Sarawak.

“For example, when I approved the allocation of Batang Sadong (bridge) – now already completed – I thought there would be no more bridges to build, but later on, two of my ministers Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri and Datuk Seri Rohani Karim told me that there would be also the Batang Lupar (bridge).

“I remember when I was travelling on the same car with the late (Pehin Sri) Datuk Patinggi Adenan Satem, I told him to give 50 per cent and I would give 50 per cent to fund this project, which he agreed.

“I thought the river was not wide. I thought RM300 million to RM400 million is enough to implement the project when the Minister of Works Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof told me it would cost about RM1 billion – I was a bit shocked,” he said.

Najib said as he had promised to build the bridge, he would fulfil it.

He also said he was shocked to learn that Kapit was cut-off from the outside world.

“Kapit is probably the only one (town) in the world that is cutoff from the whole world. I never heard of anything like this in my whole life.

“How can we allow this? In Malaysia, we cannot allow it to happen. That’s why I gave the allocation, although it was not in the budget, to build a road so that Kapit woule be connected to the whole world.”

On PBB, Najib believed that the party was ready to go all out to ensure BN’s victory in the 14th general election (GE14).

“I don’t see any gap in PBB. I can confirm this because I am the Prime Minister who has visited Sarawak 59 times.

“The spirit of cooperation among the party leaders and its members is a special characteristic of PBB. The spirit of comradeship and relationship among the leaders – the old and new, and also among the Muslim Bumiputeras and non-Muslim Bumiputeras, should become a model for all component parties in BN,” he said.

Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg who is PBB president, as well as deputy chief ministers Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan – both PBB deputy presidents – were present at the event.