KUCHING: It has never been the dream of Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari Tun Openg to become the sixth Chief Minister of Sarawak.
“It was never my dream or my aim to be the Chief Minister as all I want is to serve the people. Then when Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem passed away, the party (PBB) agreed for me to lead,” said Abang Johari during the ‘Chief Minister’s Special Session with the Media 100 Days and Beyond’ at Grand Margherita Hotel here, yesterday.
He said he was never obsessed with gaining more power and even when he was asked to stand for election many years ago, he initially turned the offer down.
“At that time I was only 30 years old and I didn’t know about my future in politics; I only wanted to focus on my family,” he said.
When asked why he still referred to his team as ‘Team Adenan’, Abang Johari said that it was because the mandate was given to the late Adenan, not to him.
“It is still the same team, but only with a different leader. I don’t claim it to be my team,” he said.
He was also asked if there would be a Cabinet reshuffle in the future, however he gave no comment.
On the coming general election, Abang Johari is confident that state Barisan Nasional (BN) would win back some seats from the opposition in the next general election.
He said that this was based on BN’s performance in the last state election when it won back a number of seats from the opposition.
“Based on the votes in the last state election, we may have additional seats in the Parliament,” he added.
When asked on what was being done to retain seats in the Chinese majority areas and the preparations for the general election, the Chief Minister said the state BN would be doing what it could.
“Of course we want the Chinese community to come back to us. We treat everyone equally. In the last state election we won a few seats from the Democratic Action Party (DAP). So based on this, my feeling is that we may get back more seats in the coming general election,” he said.
