Sarawak BN to field two new woman candidates in coming state election

The Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) is to field at least two new woman candidates in the coming state election expected before June next year.

Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem, who is the state BN chairman, said this was in recognition and appreciation of the important role the fairer gender played in the society now.

"This is only fair. Sarawak BN has now four woman state legislative members. Come the next state election we will probably have another two more provided the people give them the support.

"I will make sure that out of the 11 new state seats that hopefully we can use for the coming election, two will be given to them," he said.

He was answering questions from the floor at a youth forum organised by TEGAS, a non profit organisation dedicated to promote technical education among bumiputera students in the state, at the Borneo Conevntion Centre Kuching (BCCK) here today.

Meanwhile Adenan again stressed his administration would continue to give more focus on rural development.

"In the state legislative assembly sitting next month, I am going to ask for another RM500 million to carry out rural development projects and programmes.

"In the last sitting, the RM500 million that was approved had been used, among others, to build bridges in Long Lama, Limbang, Bako and Sibuti," he said.

He said there were still many poor people in the rural areas who needed the government assistance to help them raise their standard of living.

Touching on his recent decision to allow English as another language used in official correspondence and communication in the state administration besides Bahasa Malaysia, he said under the constitution technically Sarawak could do so.

"English is a very important international language. It is unwise for our young people not to master it in order to take up employment opportunities generated by the private sector," he said.