BALINGIAN The Balingian by-election scheduled for March 29, 2014 sees a straight fight between BN-PBB’s Yussibnosh Balo and Pakatan Rakyat-PKR candidate Abdul Jalil Bujang, when nominations closed this morning.

Yussibnosh, 48, resigned as Dalat district officer to contest the by-election on a BN-PBB ticket, while Bintulu division PKR secretary Abdul Jalil, 55, is a businessman. Although he lives in Bintulu, he frequently visits his village in Mukah.

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

The constituency has 13,366 voters, of whom 67.3 percent are Malay/Melanau, Iban voters constitute 19.02 percent and Chinese 13.65 percent.

The Barisan Nasional has been spent millions of ringgit in Mukah in order to turn it into the ‘capital’ of the Sarawak Corridor Renewal Energy (SCORE) while neglecting Balingian, Kuala Balingian and the longhouses and kampungs within.

Both the Balingian and Dalat state constituencies are under the Mukah parliamentary constituency. In the last three years, the government had spent more than RM139 million for road repairs, longhouse repairs and supply of clean water and electricity, but little attention was given to Balingian.

Betong division PKR chairperson Abang Zulkifli Abang Engkeh, who is helping in the campaign in Balingian, said that although Mukah town itself is within the Balingian constituency, very little development had been carried out at Balingian bazaar and Kuala Balingian, as well as nearby kampungs and longhouses.

“All the funds, millions of ringgit, have been concentrated to make Mukah the capital of SCORE, where more than RM24 billion worth of investments have been promised.

“This is the reason why the majority of the people of Balingian especially fishermen, farmers and small oil palm planters are not happy.

“They have been totally neglected,” Abang Zulkifli added, pointing out that PKR is trying to highlight all the issues of non-development in their campaign.

In the last election, PKR’s candidate Suriati Abdullah 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.

Bid to reduce the BN’s majority

“I hope the voters will understand all the issues affecting them. We will try to improve our votes and reduce the BN’s majority,” Abang Zulkifli said.

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, he said.

Like his predecessors, former CM Abdul Taib had also failed to bring development to the poor fishermen and farmers, Abang Zulkifli said.

The biggest problem is clean water in Balingian where they have to defend on rain water for their daily needs, and their problem is made worse during drought.

Moreover, the rain water has a funny taste due to alleged air pollution from the nearby aluminium plant.

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