Padungan incumbent ready to defend seat

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KUCHING: Padungan assemblyman Dominique Ng yesterday said he was ready to square it off with his old political foe, Lily Yong, or any fresh face from Barisan Nasional (BN).

“BN will definitely field a candidate to contest i Padungan and it could be th former assemblywoman, Lily Yong, or someone new like Kuching South City Mayor James Chan.

“Whoever it is, I’m prepared and I welcome all challenges,” he said when asked to comment on are cent news report on Yong’s possible come back.

The report said Yong, from Sarawak United People’sParty (SUPP), was tightlipped about her making are turn in the next state election.

Yong said she did not want to talk about making a come back but would continue to be on the ground serving the communities.

BN lost Padungan to Ng of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) in the last state election. Ng garnered 8,002 voteswith a winning majority of 1,417 votes in May, 2006.

In this so-called worst setback in SUPP’s election records, it lost eight of its 19 seats.

In the 2001 state election when she first contested, Yong beat Democratic Action Party (DAP)’s Chong Chieng Jen with a majority of 1,033 votes.She bagged 8,402 votes.

Ng, who is State Parti Keadilan Rakyat advisor,said he felt Yong might be contesting in the next state election because currently, he did not see SUPP grooming anyone else.

“But nothing is certain,” he pointed out.

He said rumours had it that Chan had been tippedas a potential candidate to  wrest back Padungan from PKR but the mayor had denied it.

“He seems to be campaigning vigorously,” Ng noted.

Last year, it was reported that Chan had joined SUPP but he denied having joined the party.

Chan is the secondnon-politician mayor of Kuching South City Council (MBKS).

To a question, Ng said he would certainly defend Padungan if PKR wantedhim to do so and he hoped that it would be a two cornered fight.

A two cornered fight would give PKR a better chance to face BN’s onslaught compared toa three-cornered fight, he pointed out.

Having served Padungan three and a half years, Ng  said one of the issues faced concerned the community and authorities.

“The people feel that theauthorities are not as responsive as they shouldbe.

People’s expectation are very high – sometimes they(authorities) do well but sometimes they are veryslow, so people get frustrated,” he said.

He said the recent fire at Gambier Street was an example of poor or slow response from the authority.

“The fire engine fromPadungan fire station is quite out of date comparedto the ones from Batu Lintang and Petra Jayawhich are more modern.

The fire at Gambier Street should serve as a wake-up call to Bomba to improvetheir equipment,” he said.

He said PKR had called for an upgrading of outdated fire-fighting equipment before but the government did not seem to pay attention.

He also noted that someroads in the city, as well asthe drainage and irrigation system, needed to be upgraded.