Pandikar turns up the charm for PBS on Sandakan campaign trail

SANDAKAN POLLS | The Sandakan by-election campaign trail continues to heat up after the presence of Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal yesterday with former Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia making a sudden appearance in support of PBS today.

Pandikar, who quit Sabah Umno in December last year and currently has no party affiliation, showed up to assist PBS in their ceramah at Pulau Berhala, an island off Sandakan.

Pulau Berhala is one of two voting districts in Sandakan which BN won in the previous general election, the other voting district being Kampung Sim Sim.

The ceramah was an intimate affair with about 60 people in attendance. At the same time, there was a kenduri at the nearby mosque with about a similar crowd size.

Though there was a makeshift stage prepared for the guests-of-honour in an empty clearing in the middle of the village, Pandikar quickly closed the gap between him and the villagers by coming down from the stage to mingle with them.

One of the villagers immediately approached Pandikar and began questioning why the current government had not helped provide them with basic necessities as they are still living without electricity among other things.

"We do not want money, we want development," said the man (photo, left) who said he was known as Pak Utuh in the village.

"Do you know why (there is no help from the current government)? Because they are giving all (their help) to Penang, they want to build a bridge there. They already have a bridge there, but now they want to build another one under the sea," Pandikar replied, as the villagers crowding around him began to cheer in support.

He was referring to the controversial Penang undersea tunnel project which has often been questioned by the opposition. When he eventually started his speech, Pandikar had already made his way back to the makeshift stage, sheltered under a tent.

But when he heard someone in the audience complain that it was too hot, he again came off the stage to join the crowd standing on the sandy ground to continue his speech.

Throughout his speech, he moved around the area, interacting often with the crowd and sometimes walking up to speak with some of them directly.

The former parliament speaker told his audience said he initially had no plans to campaign for PBS but felt he was "called to do so after he heard that Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng and DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang were holding ceramah in Sandakan.

"Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng and his father Lim Kit Siang were recently in Sandakan to speak at Kampung Sim Sim. At first, I didn't want to come as there was no reason for me to come [...] but then people from Malaya came here and started speaking about issues that we have never heard of before.

"Who here has heard of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL)? What is 1MDB?" Pandikar asked. He then walked nearer to some women sitting on the porch of their stilt house next to the ceramah area and asked them, "Have you heard of ECRL? 1MDB?"

The women shook their heads, then Pandikar asked, "But you have heard of BR1M, right? You have received BR1M, right?" When the women nodded their heads, Pandikar turned back to the crowd and asked them who was the one who provided them with BR1M to which they shouted "BN".

He also pointed out that infrastructure on the island such as the mosque and the water tank were all provided by the former BN administration.

"What has rocket (DAP) ever done here?" he thundered and the crowd yelled back: "Tumbang DAP! (Topple DAP!)

Pandikar also praised PBS' candidate Linda Tsen, formerly the two-term Batu Sapi MP when he was still the Dewan Rakyat Speaker. Not only does Tsen have the experience, the 63-year-old is also calm and can make her points clearly in her debates in the Dewan Rakyat, he said.

DAP's candidate Vivian Wong is a young candidate at 30 years old but Pandikar said if they wanted the people to choose a young elected representative, then the first person to go should be Kit Siang.

"If you want to choose someone young, listen properly, meaning there is no benefit on having someone old. Then the first person we should get rid of is Kit Siang because he is already old. There is another person who is even older than him," Pandikar said, without naming who this other individual was.

Urging the villagers to vote for PBS, he joked that he would come back to the village to look for them if they broke their promise to vote for Tsen.

The Sandakan parliamentary seat fell vacant after the death of its incumbent Stephen Wong on March 28.

DAP is fielding his youngest daughter, Vivian Wong who will go up against PBS candidate Linda Tsen and three other independents - Hamzah Abdullah, Chia Siew Yong and Sulaiman Abdul Samad.

Polling day is set to be held on May 11.  - Mkini