Dr Juanda
SIBU: He may have served as a mufti in a state across the South China Sea but Datuk Dr Juanda Jaya has never lost touch with his roots in the deep interior of Jemoreng, where he is standing as a Barisan Nasional candidate in the Sarawak state election this Saturday.
And to him, the faces in the constituency are, more often than not, familiar.
“Alhamdulillah, our campaigining is very aggressive. All the residents here are either relatives, neighbours or friends since I was small,” said the native of Kampung Igan in Matu, which comes under the Jemoreng constituency, located about 70km from here.
“I am going down to the grassroots to get their feedback and suggestions besides asking them to continue supporting the BN,” the former Mufti of Perlis told Bernama.
Asked what were the challenges he was facing since entering the political arena, Juanda, who was a deputy mufti for three years and mufti for six, said it had its own pecularities which were a stark contrast with the religious field.
“As a religious figure, the issues were more of the academic type but politics is about meeting the people’s needs,” he said, adding that he wanted to continue the BN’s tradition of bringing development to rural areas.
He said the people in Jemoreng were already enjoying the benefits brought by the initiatives taken by Sarawak BN led by Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem.
“Since Tan Sri (Adenan) took over as chief minister, he has been very focused on developing rural areas and I as a new candidate, welcome his efforts because I am from a rural area,” he added.
Dr Juanda, 45, is also a former fellow of Oxford University, United Kingdom.
Jemoreng will see a three-cornered fight with the other candidates being Kiprawi Suhaili of Amanah and Abdullah Saminan, an independent. The constituency has 9,699 registered voters.
In the last state election in 2011, Abu Seman Jahwie from BN won in Jemoreng with a majority of 2,926 votes. He beat two independent candidates, Asbor Abdullah and Abdul Hafiz Noh. — BERNAMA