A realistic manifesto for Sarawak
By Free Malaysia Today
KUCHING: The Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) is now in the midst of formulating a manifesto for the coming 10th state election, Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud said.
Describing it as a “realistic manifesto”, Taib, who is the state BN chairman, said at the moment he was gathering feedback from the ground to gather inputs so that the manifesto would meet the voters’ expectation especially on economic development.
“I want to tell the people what is my programme in the next five years… this will go to my manifesto.
“What is realistic about my manifesto? I don’t want to promise something I cannot do. What I can or cannot do depends on how the people respond. So I have to be very careful about what I have to say. If I say something the people cannot respond to, then it is going to be a plan that cannot be implemented.
“So I have to come out with a manifesto for Sarawak that is easy for the people to understand… there is a shift to a different kind of economic model,” he told reporters after the seventh graduation and award presentation ceremony of Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus (Swinburne Sarawak) at the Borneo Convention Centre, here today.
Taib, who is also the Pro-Chancellor of Swinburne Sarawak, presented the scrolls to 292 graduates in engineering, science, business, ICT and multimedia.
Besides economic development, Taib said the manifesto would also emphasise on solid and stable government.
“The manifesto will also re-emphasise that Malaysia must retain its desire to be still a great country and not to be common place, putting much more emphasis on freedom to fight and debate.
“My desire is to make sure that the foundation of the state is still solid — stable government, people’s unity. The people must not forget this… ,” he said.
‘It is coming’
Meanwhile, when asked when the state poll would be held, Taib said, “It is coming.”
“I can’t decide yet (polls date). Do you know how difficult it is to decide the election date?
“When you want to choose a marriage date, it is difficult. That is only one person but I have to do with two million people,” he said.
Taib described his more often appearance in public recently to meet different groups of people throughout the state as a “normal pattern”.
“We are going for a big transformation to move from middle-income economy to higher income economy. That calls for retuning our mentality to see whether the future leadership that you want… can suit the ground conditions,” he said.
On reaching out to the Chinese community, Taib said he had been doing it since he became the Chief Minister and he promised to be a chief minister for all.
