KUCHING: Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s tenure as chief minister started with the correct fundamentals, said Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing.
The Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president said among Abang Johari first focused on the development of infrastructure like roads, bridges, and water and electricity supplies.
Masing, who is also Minister of Infrastructure Development and Ports, said without these infrastructural developments, it would be almost impossible to develop and benefit from assets such as land, of which the state has a lot.
“Agriculture would not take off and the people would be greatly handicapped in their efforts to better their lives,” he said, adding that all these would be impossible to do if the chief minister had not been proactive in seeking alternative funds to finance infrastructural development.
He said had Putrajaya been more caring in fulfilling Sarawak’s needs, it would have been much easier for the state to progress rapidly.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get much help. Therefore, Sarawakians must give full support to our chief minister in his effort to make the state a fully developed region by 2030.
“We cannot put our trust in the federal government to fulfill our wish to be a developed state in 10 years’ time. We have to do it on our own,” he added.
Thus, Masing wished the chief minister all the best in his endeavour to develop Sarawak, adding that he had taken the correct steps in moving Sarawak towards 2030.
Masing said no Sarawakian should be an obstacle to that noble effort.
Abang Johari was sworn in as Sarawak’s sixth chief minister on Jan 12, 2017 succeeding the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem, who passed away on 11 January, 2017.
