BETONG (Sarawak): The federal government will allocate RM30 million to continue with the bumiputera customary rights land perimeter survey in Sarawak next year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said yesterday.

He said the government has previously allocated RM60 million for the native customary rights (NCR) land survey in the state to determine the ownership of the land.

“The amount [already allocated] has to be increased next year and in 2015 for another 680,000ha of such land in the state to be surveyed,” he said in his speech at the Gawai Dayak celebration at the Wilson Begat Bakir longhouse in Penom, Ulu Paku, here yesterday.

He said the NCR land perimeter survey was among the pledges made by the Barisan Nasional in its manifesto in Sarawak for the 13th general election (GE13) that would be fulfilled.

“In the recent election, the indigenous and rural communities in Sarawak had been instrumental to BN’s victory,” he said.

Najib said the solid support shown by the indigenous and rural communities of Sarawak in GE13 would not be made futile by the BN government.

He said as a first step in appreciation of that support, he decided to appoint more members of parliament from Sarawak to the federal Cabinet.

“This is the first time in the history of the nation that seven MPs from Sarawak were included in the federal Cabinet.”

He said prosperity in Sarawak would not be confined to the urban areas, and that efforts would be intensified to bring about more development in the rural areas.

“We will ensure that development in this state is fairly distributed,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the Gawai (Harvest Festival) celebration at Rumah Panjang George, Nanga Nangsang, Pakan in Julau yesterday, Najib reiterated that the federal government will intensify rural development in Sarawak.  

He said the BN’s massive election victory in Sarawak proved the people in the state wanted the coalition to continue its efforts on rural transformation.

“The rural development agenda in Sarawak will be further intensified to enable areas that are still left behind to be developed.

“The BN government is a government that keeps its promises on rural development no matter whether the area is under the SPDP, PBB or PRS [BN component parties in Sarawak],” he said..

Najib said the BN always endeavoured to fulfill its promises to the people, unlike the opposition which only wanted power.

“The opposition only knows how to make promises because they want to go to Putrajaya to be in power to the extent that they held a swearing in ceremony for the prime minister,” he said.

Najib also expressed his appreciation to Sarawak’s Dayak community for its continuous support to the BN.

“The support must be reciprocated. Believe me, we will not make any sweet promises to the Dayak community and Sarawak which we can’t keep,” he said.
Najib also said he was satisfied with the performance of the BN component parties which contested in the interiors of Sarawak, such as SPDP that won all four parliamentary seats it contested.

Having obtained the mandate from the people, Najib said the government would ensure that it meets the national transformation agenda of emerging as a developed nation by 2020. — Bernama


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 10, 2013.

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