Sarawak Chief Minister wants Sarawakian to move forward and be on par with the rest of the world, said Dato’ Sebastian Ting

suppadmin | November 24, 2015

Malaya should compliment and not hinder Sarawak’s government good intention to allow Sarawakians to grow and be on par with the rest of the world.

Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Secretary general, Dato’ Sebastian Ting sajd he was disappointed and surprised by the reaction of Social and Culture Affairs Adviser to the government, Tan Sri Rais Yatim who asked Sarawak government to reconsider its decision to adopt English as the official language of the state to safeguard unity between the Peninsula and East Malaysia.

Rais, whose children were educated overseas claimed that the state government’s move could sow seeds of discord among the people.

“Isn’t this a disintegration and will it not cause a split in the society? So, in terms of nationhood, I am not in favour of the state government’s stand,” he said.

Ting said that since Adenan took over as Chief Minister, he has been implementing policies all for the betterment of his people. His good intentions should not be construed as sowing seeds of discord.

“Not only Rais’s statement is disappointing, it appears that he is not concerned on how Sarawak should move forward, improve and develop. Being bi-lingual for any Malaysian is a plus point. The world is getting borderless, we should not let it pass us by trying to be nationalists. And the CM never said BM is not important. He said both languages should be the official languages,” Ting stated.

Really, what is the main cause of discord in our Society? Surely it cannot be the knowledge of another language. He should know better.

English, said Ting, has always already been used in both civil service and corporate bodies and the CM was just endorsing it to encourage the usage of English.

Adenan had recently announced that the state had adopted English, along with Bahasa Malaysia as the preferred official languages of the state administration.

Rais himself is a trained lawyer and speaks perfect English with a little British ascent, always dressed immaculately. This had helped him tremendously when he was then our Foreign Minister. He was effective and persuasive with his excellent command of English with envy from some of his counterparts.

Sarawak is unique in its historical and cultural background. This is not the same as in Malaya.

So, there is really no issue about having English as another official language for Sarawak. We are very sure that all Sarawakians are with our YAB chief Minister in this pragmatic, progressive and intelligent decision, which will greatly benefit our children, future generations and business community at large.

Dear fellow Sarawakians, together let us unite and rally behind our Chief Minister on this..

Whether or not Federal would like to emulate this is their privilege.