From The Boneo Post . Posted on April 10, 2011, Sunday
KUCHING: Barisan Nasional (BN) new face, Martin Ben wants the constituents in the Bidayuh majority seat of Kedup to give him a chance in the April 16 state election. Martin, 49, who is the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Kedup deputy chairman, is facing a four-cornered fight with Belayong Jayang, 52, of the Sarawak National Party (SNAP), Lainus Andrew Luwak, 68, from the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and an independent, Amin Banti, 48.
“For me personally, every vote counts. I will try my best with the strong support of the BN and good government policies in place to provide fair development in Kedup,” he told Bernama, here. However, he did not intend to rest on his laurels as the son of a former assistant minister, the late Datuk Michael Ben, who was the state assemblyman for Tebedu, which was later partly redelineated to form the Kedup constituency. While he was of the view that the chances of PBB being returned in Kedup was very good at present, he said the BN machinery could not afford to be complacent.
In countering the native customary rights (NCR) land issue that was basically the opposition standard election fodder, he said Kedup was fortunate because tracts of NCR land were being developed by the Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra).
“Apart from some small pockets, most of the areas have been surveyed and issued with titles,” he said, adding that the BN machinery had also gone to the ground to explain some of the negative propaganda spread by the opposition on the matter. As one of the 10 PBB new faces, Martin said it would be a tough act to emulate Kedup incumbent, Frederick Bayoi Manggie whom he described as his “political mentor”. Even though almost 74 per cent of the registered 17,466 voters were Bidayuhs, followed by Chinese (18 per cent) and Malay/Melanau (6.5 per cent), he said.
Development had been equally spread out in all the 108 villages in Kedup. Last month, the presence of the country’s most powerful men at the Sejiwa Senada programme in Serian town, about 65 km, also spoke volumes of Kedup as a BN stronghold.
It went down the annals of local history as the day when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin joined local dignitaries to meet the common folk, who matter the most. Kampung Bunan Punok and Kampung Bunan Gega are two Bidayuh villages in Kedup that can be considered modern kampungs compared to others in the state as these have benefitted from the rural electrification scheme.
Comprising 250 households, the roads in both villages are well paved and they enjoy electricity and water supply through gravity feed besides being served by a health clinic, a primary school and a police station. The nearest secondary school is SMK Tebakang, which is about 15 minutes away.
Meanwhile, farmer Borgia Badas, 50, of Kampung Bunan Punok, recalled that when she was younger the villagers had to travel to Serian by boat and then walked to the village. “Sometimes the journey to Serian can take up to one day but now the roads enable us to transport our produce to sell in Serian more conveniently,” she said, hoping that the government would start to light up the road.
Another farmer, Lawanance Aejore, 34, of Kg Bunan Gega was happy that the government had fulfilled its promises to the people. “What they (the government) promise, they deliver. What we want is just that the government help further in developing the people’s economy here,” he said. Kampung Bunan Gega village chief, Albert Andrew Ruha was happy that Najib had gone to Serian to be close to the ordinary folk like him.
“Since the last time, we had always supported the BN.
The people here have never been neglected by the government in all aspects of development,” he said. He said due to the remoteness of the village previously, telecommunication was quite a problem until the last few years. “No signal,” he said in comparison to the present situation where his area had good mobile telephone coverage from all the telecommunication companies. – Bernama
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