DAP vows to Ubah rural Sarawak

The party launches a project that involves building roads and providing water and electricity.

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP has begun gearing up for the 2015 Sarawak state election with the launching of a rural outreach project that involves building roads and providing basic amenities such as electricity and clean water.

The project, billed as “Impian Sarawak”, is aimed at improving DAP’s electoral chances among rural voters by convincing them that the party has the capacity and the determination to make life better for them.

In a speech at party headquarters today, DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng said the party hoped the project would dramatically improve its standing in Sarawak and make possible the “eventual takeover of Putrajaya in the 14th General Election”.

According to party publicity chief Tony Pua, DAP has begun recruiting volunteers for the various works that come under scheme.

Pua estimated that the amenities projects would cost between RM20,000 and RM50,000 each. DAP would raise funds through a series of charity dinners across the country.

Party officials also said DAP would organise tours of Penang and Selangor for the rural folk of Sarawak.

This morning’s launching of the campaign included the screening of a video depicting the miseries of Sarawak rural life. One scene showed villagers using yellowish river water to bathe and do their washing.

“After 50 years of the formation of Malaysia, the state still cannot provide clean water to its citizens. Something is very wrong, isn’t it?” Lim said.

Sarawak DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen said many villages situated around large hydroelectric dams were ironically deprived of electricity supply.

He added: “Sarawak was the state that generated the most revenues for Malaysia last year, amounting to RM4.7 billion. Yet it is the fourth least developed state.

“Judging from the way BN is governing the state, they probably need to wait another 50 years to obtain water and electricity supply.

“Hence, we want to show that as an opposition party, we also can do a lot. We can speed up the development of rural areas by tenfold.”

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok said the Sabah and Sarawak interiors held the key to political change in Malaysia.

“We can see there is already an awakening in the peninsula, but not so much in the rural areas of East Malaysia,” she said. “So we need to create the awareness.”

Lim was cautious in his reply when asked whether DAP’s target was to capture the state government in the 2015 polls.

“I don’t deny that we are gunning for the Sarawak state election,” he said. “But before we do anything, awareness is very important.

“Whether or not we are going to contest more seats, it is still too early to say.”