PUTRAJAYA (Jan 19): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has assured that the minority communities in the country including those in Sabah and Sarawak, will not be marginalised by his unity government.
As such, he said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof has been tasked to lead in resolving any problems that had previously hurt the feelings of the people of the two states.
“We must also be aware that certain minority communities in our country, whether Chinese or Indian, feel that there is a pragmatic approach to marginalise or degrade them.
“I wish to to assure you that the unity government will not allow this to happen especially in Sabah and Sarawak,” he said when delivering his mandate themed “Developing Malaysia Madani” here on Thursday (Jan 19).
Anwar said Fadillah has been given complete trust to resolve all pending matters related to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), to ensure the fate of the people in Sabah and Sarawak will be protected.
The prime minister said that although the agreement was signed by the previous leaders, it is the current government’s responsibility to fulfil what has been promised.
“How is it possible that after 60 years, we cannot give them the right to decide and implement RM10 million projects on their own, but we have agreed to allow it now,” he said, adding that the MA63 meeting would be held in Kuching, Sarawak on Friday (Jan 20), where most of the matters would be resolved.
Anwar also stressed that it is the government’s responsibility not to allow any group or race in this country to be plagued by poverty or be left behind from development progress.
They should not be assisted solely by giving handouts. Instead, the government needs to adopt an approach to free them from poverty, he said.
“Our responsibility is to try our best to help them break free from the shackles of poverty.
“I use the term ‘break free’ because we cannot be giving aid all the time, as they will continue to depend on government contributions, which creates a dependency syndrome, which is to become reliant on handouts; so (that way,) they will never break free,” the prime minister said.