Be true Barisan Nasional supporters, Bidayuhs told

2

Dato Peter Minos

KUCHING: The Bidayuh community should show their appreciation to Barisan Nasional by voting for BN candidates tomorrow.

PBB deputy publicity chief Dato Peter Minos said the Bidayuhs, being a small economically struggling group, simply had no choice but to stick to BN to forge ahead and proper.

“Let us thank what the BN government has done for our Bidayuh community all these years by voting and returning BN to power, not just in Mas Gading but also in Serian and Mambong.

“It is just unthinkable for the opposition (Pakatan Rakyat) to rule us because they will not be in federal and state
governments (at the same time),” he said yesterday.

Minos said there was nothing Pakatan and other non-BN groups could do apart from preaching hatred, disunity and anger.

“We cannot afford to be divided and disunited … something the opposition hopes will happen. There is nothing that the opposition and non-BN candidate can do for us as their words and promises cannot be actualised. Their rhetoric are empty and mean nothing to us.

“So, stay united with BN and ignore those opposing BN.”

On Mas Gading, Minos said those groups claiming to represent BN, should stop sabotaging the candidate already chosen by the BN top leadership.

“Why ‘bising’ (create disharmony) and go against BN leaders? True BN members do not say one thing and do another.”

Of the three Bidayuh majority seats, Mas Gading is rated the hottest seat mainly due to heated rivalry between incumbent Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe, who chose to contest as an independent against BN which fielded new comer Anthony Nogeh Gumbek from SPDP.

The other contestants in the four-cornered fight are former Mas Gading MP Patrick Anek Uren from State Reform Party (STAR) and Mordi Bimol from the DAP.

SPDP president Tan Sri William Mawan, during a gathering in Bau on Thursday, pledged to recommend Nogeh to be made a federal deputy minister should he won Mas Gading to ensure that the Bidayuh community would continue to move forward.

Meanwhile, Infrastructure Development and Communication Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin, during an event in Biawak, Lundu, on Thursday, also urged the Bidayuh community in Mas Gading to vote for Nogeh.

Manyin, who is also PBB vice president and a highly respected Bidayuh BN leader, warned voters that voting for the ‘other candidate’, a tacit reference to Dr Tiki, would be akin to ‘burning bridges’.

Opar assemblyman Ranum Mina, who also spoke, said there is only one BN candidate in Mas Gading and he urged voters not to be confused by the independent or opposition candidates.

The other two Bidayuh seats of Serian and Mambong also see BN candidates in a tough fight against their opponents.

In Serian, Datuk Richard Riot, who has helmed the seat since 1990, is in a three cornered fight with Edward Luak of the DAP and Johnny Aput of STAR.

Mambong, which stretches from some parts of Bau district into Padawan/ Penrissen up to some parts of Serian district, sees incumbent Dato Sri Dr James Dawos Mamit, incumbent since 1999, in a three-cornered fight with Kuala Lumpur-based consultant Willie Mongin of PKR and Dr Dripin Sakoi of STAR.