23 senators from Dewan Negara visit Sarawak Cultural Village

Twenty-three senators who are executive committee members of the Malaysian Senator Council from the Upper House of Parliament or Dewan Negara visited Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) Santubong yesterday.

They will be in Kuching on an official visit to Sarawak until April 6.

Its president Senator Dato Sri Khairudin E S Abdul Samad said such a visit was to foster relationships with all senators from the Dewan Negara.

“This visit is a kind of road show by council members and Sarawak is the second state we have visited since the programme started, the first being Johor,” he told reporters.

“We want our senators to be close to people in the whole state through this programme and to know their problems, while strengthening bilateral ties between Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia,” he added.

Khairudin said such a visit can help senators from Sarawak with issues encountered and raised in the Dewan Negara and help fi nd the solutions.

They will next visit Kedah, Pahang, Sabah and other states.

Khairudin said it was his fi rst visit to the living museum.

“The experience of walking on the bamboo bridge and log ladder was a sheer delight and exciting which we had only seen in documentaries on television,” he said.

Khairudin and the rest of the council members toured and visited various types of ethnic dwellings at SCV, after which they were entertained by the cultural troupe.

The council members were feted to a state dinner on Tuesday night and visited the State Legislature Building on Wednesday and paying a courtesy call on Head of State Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud at the Astana.

Present to welcome the visitors was SCV general manager Jane Lian Labang and her staff.