KOTA KINABALU: Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan today rubbished opposition claims that pledges made for Sabah in the Barisan Nasional manifesto were recycled.
He said the opposition might have read the wrong documents.
“As the minister in charge of the Economic Planning Unit, I was very much part of the manifesto team. Many new subjects were introduced and one of them is to set up English-medium schools.
“This is something extraordinary and we thanked the prime minister for agreeing to the proposals made by the state government and leaders,” he told reporters when met at an engagement session with Sepanggar Chinese schools’ management community here, today.
He said establishing English-medium schools in the state would help locals master the language and close the gap between the peninsular, and Sabah and Sarawak.
“So, that’s a big announcement, which I think even (Datuk Seri Mohd) Shafie Apdal has never thought of it,” he said.
He also said the government had also agreed to ensure there would be no price difference between the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak at least at the retail level.
Using Proton car prices as an example, he said the people of Sabah would no longer have to pay extra RM3,000 to RM4,000 in cost when purchasing a Proton.
“For us in Sabah, this is good news,” he added.
He also noted that the BN manifesto touched on the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) as an admission criteria into public universities.
“This shows the government cares for the Chinese education system.
In moving forward, there should be no question as to whether Chinese schools should exist because we have made that decision at the early stages of our nationhood. The only question is how to strengthen and improve the quality of Chinese schools,” he added.
He said if the bumiputera mastered Chinese dialects, it would be an advantage when dealing with China, a fast growing economy.
Mohd Shafie, who is Parti Warisan Sabah president, had in his statement said the manifesto unveiled by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was just an attempt to extend the life of the ruling coalition to another term.
He added that the pledges made for Sabah and Sarawak did not make sense as many of them were repeated from the past.
Meanwhile on another matter, he said the decision made by seven Sepanggar Umno division committee members to relinquish their posts will not jeopardise the party.
He said Umno and BN had remained united and strong even when seven top Sabah and federal leaders left the coalition, namely Dr Mahathir, Mohd Shafie, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin, Datuk Yong Teck Lee, and Datuk Seri Wilfred Bumburing.
“That is their (seven Sepanggar Umno members) right to decide for themselves. To me, there is no issue…but it is better for them to be with Umno,” he said.
The seven Umno Sepanggar members are Sahar Mantamin, Jamrin Wahid, Zaidi Atoh, Ladis Idris, Marino Ahmad, and Din Merin. To date, Sepanggar Umno division had yet to receive resignation letters from them.