The Sarawak BN is now in the midst of formulating a manifesto for the coming 10th state election, said Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Describing it as "realistic manifesto", Taib, who is the state BN chairperson, said at the moment he was gathering feedback from the ground to gather inputs so that the manifesto would meet the voters' expectation especially on the economic development.

"I want to tell the people what is my program in the next five years... this will go to my manifesto.

"What is realistic about my manifesto? I don't want to promise something I cannot do. What I can or cannot do all depends on how the people respond.

"So I have to be very careful (about) what I have to say. If I say something the people cannot respond to, then it is going to be a plan that cannot be implemented.

"So I have to come out a manifesto for Sarawak that is easy for the people to understand and there is a shift to a different kind of economic model," he told reporters in Kuching today.

Besides economic development, Taib said the manifesto would also emphasise on solid and stable government.

"The manifesto will also re-emphasise that Malaysia must retain its desire to be still a great country and not to be common place, putting much more emphasis on freedom to fight and debate.

"My desire is to make sure that the foundation of the state is still solid, stable government, people's unity. The people must not forget about this and not lose emphasis on it," he said.

Meanwhile, Taib said the state government planned to build up information about the state government in all, including in the net, as a channel to disseminate information to the people in the next five years.

He said there was no proper channel to distribute information to the people and that had created a misperception that there was a lack of dissemination of information from the government.

"We are going to emphasise this. In the next five years, we are going to build up information about the government in all, even through the net. Then most probably it will improve the situation," he said.

Meanwhile, when asked by reporters when the state poll would be held, Taib said, "it is coming".

"I can't decide yet (polls date). Do you know how difficult it is to decide the election date?

"When you want to choose for a marriage date, it is difficult. That is only one person but I have to do with two million people," he said.

Taib described his more often appearance in public recently to meet different groups of people throughout the state as a 'normal pattern'.

"We are going for a big transformation to move from middle-income economy to higher income economy. That calls for overall retuning our mentality and to see whether the future leadership that you want to implement, can suit the ground conditions," he said.

On reaching out to the Chinese community, Taib said he had been doing it since he became the Chief Minister and he promised to be a chief minister for all.

- Bernama