Sarawak election: Adenan charms Kayan community with fluency in Christian scriptures

Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem who visited a longhouse in Long Panai, charmed the Christian majority community there by his fluency in the religion's scriptures.

He recited a few scriptures while giving his speech which received a thunderous applause from the Kayan majority community.

"I am not a Christian of course, but I am trying to be a good Muslim. I also studied the scriptures. I know about the Gospel of Luke, Matthew, John and James.

"I also know the Act of the Apostle, and so on so forth, and I know the life history of Jesus...in school I got distinction for my scriptures, one of the few Malays who got distinction in scripture, not easy I tell you," he said when meeting about 1,000 people at the longhouse.

The meet and greet session at the 127-door long house was also attended by Barisan Nasional candidate for Mulu, Datuk Gerawat Gala.

Adenan who is also defending his Tanjung Datu state seat in the 11th State Election said, freedom of religion was among the 53 principles and actions executed by him.

This freedom, he said, would be upheld as long as he was chief minister.

As for the May 7 election, Adenan told the people that it was weird to see how the opposition rejected the creation of 11 new state seats, including Mulu, during the redelineation exercise but later the opposition fielded a candidate to contest for the seat.

"They (opposition) even took us to the court in an effort to nullify the new Mulu seat but we appealed and presented with a new seat for Mulu.

"That is why I am surprised that the opposition is contesting here. This is just like what a Malay saying goes 'menjilat ludah sendiri' (lick the own saliva)," he said.

Adenan said two of the new seats were allocated in the Orang Ulu area so that the state assembly could have more representatives from the community, hence their voice could be heard.

"Support my team, I can do things for you but first you must do something for me. This is not just a promise...I have power to do, as Chief Minister I have power over land, natural resources, etc," he said.

Mulu, a new seat will see a four-cornered fight comprising Gala from BN, Paul Raja (DAP), Pauls Baya (PKR) and Dr Roland Mattu (Independent).