Tauk SIkKitak???
KUCHING, Nov 28 — Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said
today systematic campaigns to discredit individuals and even a
legitimate government were tantamount to economic sabotage which
warranted a serious response from the state government.
Taib (picture),
who is also Sarawak Finance Minister cum Resource Planning and
Environment Minister, said he did not condone such systematic campaigns
which tried to prevent a small developing economy from growing even
though in a democracy the people were free to assert their wishes.
“Increasingly, we notice that negative actions are being organised in
Sarawak to gain global attention and a handful of local organisers seem
to lead this opposition to get funding from foreigners,” he said when
winding up debate in the state assembly meeting, at Petra Jaya, here.
“They discredit the government in a web of lies and half-truths wrapped
around ignorance and twisted logic,” he said, adding that it was the
position of the Barisan Nasional (BN) that the economic strategy was
sustainable growth as opposed to economic stagnation.
As such, he said, it would be short-sighted to oppose the construction
of dams in Sarawak and to listen to outsiders whose real intention
towards the state’s continued development was suspect at best.
Taib said that having developed the state’s economy with oil and gas,
timber and palm oil, the current development strategy was to develop
Sarawak’s resources and promote energy-intensive industries in order to
build a niche as part of the global supply chain.
It was also a rare opportunity for the government to create good-paying
jobs in Sarawak and to stimulate the business and investment
environment, he said.
On dam construction to generate hydro power, he said, the state
government would carry out its plan to develop hydro-electric power
projects to make the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score) a
success as such an energy development roadmap was important to provide
Sarawak with a certainty in its future economic direction.
He said hydro dams had the advantage as a cheaper source of energy
besides serving multiple purposes, including flood control, water
irrigation, water supply and ship navigation, as well as the development
of tourism.
Even International Rivers, an international non-governmental
organisation that had spread its tentacles, acknowledged that opposition
to a dam did not mean that it should not be built, he said.
Pointing out that the government was serious in ensuring that the hydro
dam projects were done properly, he said it established the Sarawak
socio-environmental impact assessment (SEIA) process, which was an
adaptation of the key elements of international guidelines to Sarawak’s
conditions, including the right of the indigenous people to land and
land-based activities. — Bernama
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