Sabati celebrates 42 years of serving needs of Sarawakians

MIRI (Sept 20): The Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Sarawak (Sabati), founded by the late Datuk Amar Laila Taib, turns 42 this year.

According to Sabati deputy president Dato Dayang Morliah Datuk Awang Daud, the formation of the association in 1982 was a recommendation by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad.

“Throughout its 42 years, Sabati has contributed to the welfare, health, education and all aspects of the needs of the people in Sarawak.

“In the 1990s, Sabati helped children with perforated heart problems and from there, it succeeded in establishing the Sarawak Heart Foundation which still exists today.”

Dayang Morliah, wife of Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, said this in her speech prior to the presentation of basic medical aids – a joint initiative by Sabati and Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), to a health clinic in Sundar, Lawas recently.

Elaborating further, she said Sabati in the 1990s had managed to purchase its very first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, with RM1.1 million sourced from public fundraising and an additional RM1 million from the Sarawak government.

“Sabati has also purchased modern equipment for eye treatment worth more than RM200,000, of which there are only three of these equipment in the country, namely in Selangor, Penang and Sarawak,” she disclosed.

While extending her gratitude to Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg for granting RM1.3 million to Sabati during the recent opening of its building premises in Kuching recently, Dayang Morliah also expressed her hope for the Sabati-Petronas partnership to continue on through corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.

“This donation has been and will be used transparently and fairly to improve the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in selected schools throughout Sarawak,” she said.

Present were Awang Tengah, who is Bukit Sari assemblyman; Lawas MP Dato Henry Sum Agong; and Awangku Jinal Abedin Pengiran Jawa, who is a political secretary to the Premier.