NAJIB’S CRYSTAL CLEAR SUPPORT MUSA

FRYING.....Najib frying a cruller at a hawker's stall in Sandakan.

Few things are crystal clear. But Prime Minister Najib Razak is sure that he wants to take the 3.2m Sabahans with him on his “journey” to make Malaysia a rich world nation by 2020. And the man he has been working closely to develop Sabah is Chief Minister Musa Aman. Sabah, says Najib, is a land of investment opportunities. It is here that his 1Malaysia unity policy is exemplified where the indigenous Kadazans, Dusuns, Muruts, Malays, ethnic Chinese and Indians live and work as one Malaysian people.

In yet another whirlwind visit to Sabah from April 20 to 21, Najib told Permodalan Nasional Berhad, the national investment company, to cash in on the resource-rich north Borneo state’s investment opportunities as he launched Malaysia’s unit trust week in Kota Kinabalu.

Najib noted that his government has identified tourism, oil palm, seaweed and other marine and agricultural business in Sabah as the nation’s key economic development areas where PNB’s subsidiaries could invest in.

Sabah is the fifth biggest investor in PNB’s trust funds, accounting for about a third of the state’s GDP of 36 billion ringgit ($12 billion). Some 1.08m people in Sabah have bought 12 billion of the 144.5 billion units in the company’s various funds.

LAUNCHING....From left: Musa Aman, Abdul Wahid Omar and Najib Razak at the launching of Malaysia's unit trust week in Kota Kinabalu.

Maybank, Malaysia’s biggest bank, is aiming to sell 120m of the Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) fund by the end of the fair on April 28, according to Abdul Wahid Omar, chief executive officer of the bank.

In Sandakan, Najib thrilled the people during his hallmark walkabout where he mingled with the mainly ethnic Chinese crowd, trying his hand at frying Chinese cruller at a hawker’s stall.

At the Yu Yuan independent Chinese school, he was Ajib Gor (Mandarin for brother Najib) to 1,000 pupils. There he announced a one million ringgit donation to the building of the 5m-ringgit multipurpose hall of the school founded in 1962.

He advised pupils to be multilingual to be able to compete globally. As an example, he singled out one of his sons who has been learning Mandarin while studying in America. He plans to send Nor Ashman, 20, to work in Beijing after his graduation so that he can improve his Mandarin.

Musa said Najib has shown that he heads a government that cares for the people. He assured ethnic Chinese of his government continued support. He said the federal government has set aside 100m ringgit for Chinese schools this year.

“The Sabah government will also continue to give financial aid to Chinese schools and temples,” he said, adding that his government gave more than 30m ringgit to them last year. (Insight Sabah)