KUCHING, Jan 11 ― Sarawak must be ruled by collective consensus from all communities for its own development, Chief Minister Datuk Abang Johari Openg said.
He said no single community can rule the state government by itself as shown in the past after each state election.
“It has to be collective from all communities. And I, as your chief minister, will exercise collective responsibility and collective approach in developing the state,” he said at the 65th anniversary of the Dayak Bidayuh National Association last night.
He urged all the communities to move together in developing the state.
“Let us maintain our unity together. Let us transform Sarawak economically together and not rely on other people.
“We must keep our houses in order. We take care of our own houses and I am sure we have our strength,” he said, explaining that state ruling parties withdrew from the Barisan Nasional coalition to form its the entity known today as Gabungan Parti Sarawak after the 2018 general election because it had the confidence fo self-rule.
“So far, in the past two years, we can show that we are able to manage ourselves. In fact, we are better now than we were before,” he added.
State Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Datuk Seri Michael Manyin, in his speech, reminded that the Bidayuh community cannot afford to be left out from the government of the day.
“The Bidayuh is a minority community of about 220,000 out of about 2.8 million of Sarawak’s population, and mostly found in the districts of Bau, Serian and Kuching,” he said.
“So if we do realise and if we do understand that we are small, I think we must make a good choice.
“And the choice is that, what we have been doing over the past years, be with the government of the day,” Manyin, a Bidayuh from Serian, said.
