BALINGIAN Sarawak PKR this afternoon named Bintulu division party secretary Abdul Jalil Bujang to challenge Yussibnosh Balo of BN-PBB for the Balingian by-election scheduled for March 29, 2014.

The announcement was made by PKR deputy president Azmin Ali in Sibu.

Abdul Jalil, whose parents are from Mukah, was a former Petronas executive. He is now a businessman in Bintulu and an activist, while Yussibnosh was a former district officer of Dalat.

Nomination day will be tomorrow.

The by-election is caused by Abdul Taib Mahmud who stepped down as chief minister as well as quitting his seat of Balingian on Feb 28, 2014.

The by-election is an important barometer to gauge how much support the rural people has for Pakatan Rakyat which comprises PKR, DAP and PAS before the next state election due in June 2016.

Admitting it is an uphill battle, Azmin told a media conference that nothing was impossible.

“There can be a lot of surprises. The people want change especially when Taib is no longer chief minister, whose government has been accused of rampant corruption, abuse of power and practising cronyism,” he said.

In the last election, PKR’s candidate Suriati Abdullah ( left ) managed to get 871 votes against Taib, who secured 6,210 votes in a three-cornered fight. The other candidate was Salleh Jafaruddin who stood as an Independent. He obtained 1,056 votes.

There are 13,366 voters, 67.3 percent of the electorate are Malay/Melanau, while Iban voters constitute 19.02 percent and Chinese 13.65 percent.

According to Sarawak PKR vice-chairperson See Chee How, who is leading the PKR campaign, PKR is hoping to highlight seven major problems in the constituency which has remained one of the most under-developed in the state even though former chief minister Taib represented it for the past 13 years.

Previously Balingian’s elected representatives from PBB - in the persons of Mohd Fauzi Hamdani, Salleh Jafaruddin, Wan Habib Syed Mahmud and Abdul Aziz Majid - had failed miserably to bring development to the people, who are mostly farmers, fishermen and oil palm workers.

Lack of employment opportunities

The number one problem affecting the people in area is the lack of economic development, which gives rises to the lack of employment opportunities. Almost all the young people are staying away from Balingian and leave for Sibu, Miri, Bintulu and other bigger towns in search of employment.

They cannot find jobs with coal and aluminium smelting plants as the companies engage cheap foreign workers.

See ( left ), who is also the Batu Lintang assemblyperson, said the majority of the people left behind are the aged and the very young.

The number two problem is clean water. They have been using rain water for their daily needs. But here again their problem is made worse during a drought. Moreover, the rain water has a funny taste due to alleged air pollution from the nearby aluminium plant.

Some longhouse and village residents say they have to use water from the Balingian River which is heavily polluted allegedly due to chemicals and other pollutants from upstream oil palm plantations.

Thirdly, the people have been dreaming of a secondary school which was promised to them more than 15 years ago. After completing primary education, the students need to go to Mukah Secondary school, which is about 60 km away, and stay there as boarders. Parents are worried about their young children staying away from their care.

Moreover, it is very costly for the poor parents to send their children to Mukah. Each week, it costs parents some RM50 for each child.

Fourthly, the villagers want the government to immediately construct a new building for SK Kampung Tellian to replace the old one which has been declared unfit for occupation. The villagers have been waiting for the new building for the past 10 years.

Besides this, the villagers want the government to repair Kampung Baru bridge and widen kampung roads which are too narrow. The villagers also want a new airport and an additional petrol station.

“Balingian has been neglected by the BN government and now they are a bit worried as we are going to highlight these problems during the campaign.

“They have started to announce various projects and distribute goodies to win the voters over,” said See, adding that the BN even sent ‘Santa Claus’ to help distribute ‘gifts’.

“You can expect more goodies in the next few days,” he said.