The Borneo Post

State PKR chief calls on govt to set up ‘colourful Sarawak university’

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With due respect to all religious institutio­ns, I personally opine that the Sarawak government should be inclusive in its future plans by initiating the setting up of a fully funded university with all recognised Sarawak religious and customary law faculties.

Roland Engan

MIRI: Newly-minted Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak chief Roland Engan has called on the state government to set up a ‘colourful Sarawak university’. which reflects a multi-ethnic and multi-religious population.

According to him, proposals to set up a religious university in the state must take into account the reality of Sarawak’s population make-up.

While he agreed on the importance of religious advancemen­t in the state, he cautioned no single religion should be given priority over others.

“With due respect to all religious institutio­ns, I personally opine that the Sarawak government should be inclusive in its future plans by initiating the setting up of a fully funded university with all recognised Sarawak religious and customary law faculties.

“The setting up of such a university will surely reflect the real colour of multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-dialect, and multicultu­ral Sarawakian­s,” he said in a statement yesterday.

His statement was in response to Utility and Telecommun­ication II (Utility) Deputy Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi revealing that the Sarawak Islamic Council (MIS) has proposed to set up Sarawak’s own Islamic university within the next three to five years.

According to Roland, as Sarawak has to a certain extent restored her autonomous status in the Federation of Malaysia by virtue of the amendment to Article 1(2) of the Federal Constituti­on, “the Sarawak government should be creative and courageous enough to exhaust all her autonomous status, particular­ly in the field of tertiary education such as the setting up of such a ‘colourful’ Sarawak University, failing which the setting up of a single religious public university will be detrimenta­l to the future of our multi-racial, multirelig­ious, and multi-dialect Sarawak”.

He added the ‘colourful university’ should also be fully funded by the Sarawak government in order to provide free education for Sarawakian­s.

 ?? ?? Roland Engan
Roland Engan

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