“Give me support and trust as PM,” Najib tells Facebook friends

(Bernama) – KUCHING: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak asked his Facebook friends, especially those who were young, to give him their full support and trust as the nation’s prime minister to deliver a better future for Sarawak.

Saying he was delighted to meet 250 online friends from all over Sarawak for the first time, Najib added that young people should have idealism and expect fair and transparent governance.

“The government may not be perfect. But we try our best, as far as possible, to achieve a better governance and government so that the people are confident that it is here to protect the interest of every single citizen of the country,” he said Saturday at the “Let’s Meet and Communicate” (Mari Berjumpa Berhubung) session with his local Facebook friends here, who later joined him for breakfast at the face-to-face meeting.

Najib, who currently has upwards of 590,000 fans on Facebook and over 90,000 on Twitter, said it became increasingly important for him and other leaders in his administration to make their interaction meaningful with each Malaysian.

Having held two similar sessions at his official residence, Seri Perdana, in Putrajaya, he said leaders must seek out users of internet and other social networking sites, where the ‘rakyat’ or people could be found in growing numbers to engage them in dialogues.

“If you cannot come to me, I will go to you. I will try and meet with as many of my online friends as I travel across Malaysia,” he said, adding that each and every one of his invited online friends supported and practised the 1Malaysia principle.

He described Saturday’s gathering as one of the ways to engage with the people in new and innovative ways since taking up the government’s leadership.

“I have also been interacting regularly on Twitter, so if you have been wondering, yes, it is really me replying to your tweets. I tweet in the morning before work, in between appointments and after work before I go to sleep,” said the prime minister.

Where Sarawak was concerned, he said, the federal government was working closely with the state government to bring about more development plans, especially after the state election expected to be held soon.

While the government faced many challenges in bringing Sarawak on par with the peninsula, he said the state achieved the highest rate of development in the last two years alone.

“Sarawak is not a small state. I thought Pahang was a big state but to the local folks here 60km is a short distance, unlike in Perlis where the same distance would already be outside the state,” he said.

Najib said in a working democracy, which worked with the people’s participation, the government was committed to reform itself to reflect the people’s aspirations.

Compared to countries such as Egypt and Libya, where democratic rights was a pivotal issue, he said Malaysia was different because it had a proven democratic system that was reflected through the ballot box.

Meanwhile, one of his Facebook friends from Betong, Grace Graa said, she was glad the prime minister utilised the new media to engage with the people as he understood what was going on in the people’s minds.

“The face-to-face meeting was as good as the real thing,” she said, adding that she hoped more of such gatherings would be held in Sarawak in the future. – Bernama