Awang Tengah (fourth right) meets some of the residents in Long Luping during a brief stop-over enroute to Buduk Nur.
BA KELALAN: Lawas MP Datuk Henry Sum Agong was the person behind the state government’s move to rescind the decision to gazette Ulu Trusan forest after he raised it with the chief minister during a visit to Lawas recently.
Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said this when campaigning for Ba Kelalan BN candidate Willie Liau in Long Luping and Buduk Nur in Ba Kelalan during Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamid’s visit to the constituency Saturday.
“It was Datuk Henry who brought the Lun Bawang community to meet the chief minister and wrote a letter to Adenan who immediately instructed the Forest Department to discontinue the forest reserve proposal,” he said.
Awang Tengah said it was wrong for Baru to claim the credit when it was rightly due to the Lawas MP’s efforts which proved the later was effective instead of Baru who had no influence over the chief minister and the BN government.
He called on Ba Kelalan voters to support BN candidate Willie Liau for a better future under BN, saying they should put behind the issue of candidacy of BN following a heated eight-horse race.
“The whole government machinery is behind Willie to be effective but I hope the Lun Bawang community should return Ba Kelalan to the BN for us in Lawas to move forward together,” he said. Apart from the development projects and grants, he said each BN assemblyman was allocated RM2 million annually for Minor Rural Project (MRP) fund but Ba Kelalan has lost RM10 million alone in five years from this grant.
Being familiar with the Ba Kelalan constituency as he was their former assemblyman under the old Lawas state constituency, he said the seat was carved out to accommodate Lun Bawang representation in the state assembly.
He thus called on the Lun Bawang voters to support the BN like they did to the late Datuk Dr Judson Sakai Tagal who won uncontested twice as Ba Kelalan assemblyman.
The state and federal governments have proven their commitment to serve the rural people of Sarawak as reflected in the funds and attention by way of the many visits here of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
“I am sure Adenan Satem will be next Chief Minister of Sarawak after May 7, and BN will continue to rule but Ba Kelalan must not lose out by voting the opposition,” he said.
Awang Tengah said while he understood their mixed feelings due to the extended family ties and the respect for each other for being related to Baru Bian, it was imperative that they look at the bigger picture of being in the BN bandwagon.
On power supply for the Ba Kelalan highlands, he said the state government had already approved IPP project for Ba Kelalan, with solar and other mini-hydro power to cater for the needs of the people here, who are far from the state grid.
Meanwhile, on the pothole-riddled road from Long Luping to Ba Kelalan, he said the prime minister had mentioned that funds would be allocated to upgrade or repair the road if mandated by the electorate in this state election.
Earlier, he engaged the voters in Long Luping and encouraged them to change course to support the BN and look at the bigger political picture.
Their ambivalence of choosing the election candidate is evident as each house has both posters of Willie and Baru.