Swearing in ceremony for Sarawak deputy chief ministers, ministers Thursday

The swearing-in ceremony for deputy chief ministers and ministers in the Sarawak State Cabinet under the new Chief Minister Datuk Abang Johari Tun Openg will be held this Thursday.

An advisory note from the Information Department today said it would at held at 10.30am at the State Legislative Assembly Complex in Petra Jaya here.

Sarawak is expected to get a new deputy chief minister to replace Abang Johari who was one of the three deputy chief ministers under the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem's government.

The other two deputy chief ministers are Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who is Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) senior vice president and Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing, the president of the Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS).

Talk is rife that the current Minister of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development, Trade and Investment Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan will be appointed by virtue he is also a senior vice president of PBB, the lynchpin of the state BN government.

Awang Tengah is also the state Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment.

Meanwhile with Abang Johari's appointment as the chief minister, another senior leader from the party is expected to be appointed to take over his former position as the Minister of Housing and Urbanisation as well as the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

Abang Johari, 66, and the youngest son of the first head of State Tun Abang Openg Abang Sapiee was sworn in as the sixth chief minister last Friday at the Astana here before the head of State Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud. --BERNAMA