For the past 50 years, the people of Balingian have been suffering from the lack of development, such as educational facilities, healthcare and other basic infrastructure like roads and clean water.

And all this despite the fact that their elected representative was the all-powerful former chief minister of Sarawak, Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Taib represented the constituency since 2001, until he quit as its assemblyperson on Feb 28, triggering a by-election.

Nomination has been fixed for March 17, while voting, in the event of a contest, will be on March 29.

The BN is expected to announce its candidate tomorrow, while PKR will announce its candidate on Sunday.

Sarawak PKR vice-chairperson See Chee How said that will be obvious to anybody who visits the constituency that the state BN has been neglecting the people of Balingian.

See, who is heading the PKR team for the by-election, said the people of Balingian had high expectations when the chief minister offered himself as the candidate for the seat in the 2001 state election.

“In addition to having the chief minister as their representative, the people of Balingian have, at one time, been served by a federal minister. There are also neighbouring constituencies with a federal minister, a state minister and an assistant minister.

“You would expect Balingian to be well served,” See ( left ) said. “However, the conditions are just like they were 50 years ago. There is no piped water supply in Balingian town, or in the Malay kampung and Iban longhouses. The people tap rain water.”

The water problem has now become worse, as a result of the drought, and the people have to find all means to look for water, including buying bottled water.

Water source heavily polluted

The Iban people depend on water from the Balingian River, which is severely polluted by neighbouring coal and aluminium smelting plants, as well as chemicals from oil palm plantations.

The roads to the villages are small and narrow, while the one main road, from Mukah to Balingian, is in a good condition as it serves only the “big guys”, such as the coal and smelting plants and the large oil palm plantations.

“They don’t have a secondary school in Balingian, and children who want to study further upon completing their primary education have to go to Mukah, about 60km away,” See said.

He said almost all the people in Balingian - the Melanau, Malays, Chinese and Iban - have no land titles, even though they have lived there for decades.

“Tomorrow, they will give land titles to more than 680 people from six Malay/Melanau villages,” See said.

The biggest problem in Balingian, he said, was the lack of employment opportunities, so much so that a lot of young people have sought employment in Bintulu, Miri and in Kuching.

These are just some of the problems the Balingian people have been facing, which Pakatan Rakyat will highlight in the by-election.

“For us in Pakatan, we want to give the best for Balingian. Unlike the BN, race or religious issues are not the criteria for selecting a candidate. He must know the plight of the people and how to solve them,” See said.

He said BN was “a bit scared” of the by-election as it had failed the people of Balingian. It was now bringing several gift-bearing ‘Santa Claus’ to the constituency.

More goodies for the people in the constituency are to be announced when Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin visit the constituency, from Saturday, he added.