S'wak Polls: Family twist adds spice in six-cornered tussle for Opar

BAU: The battle for Opar in the 12th Sarawak state election has certainly taken an interesting 'kinship' twist with the incumbent, Datuk Ranum Mina of Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) having to fend off the challenge of his nephew and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) candidate Billy Sujang.

Ranum and Billy are among the six contestants vying for the Bidayuh-majority seat, which also saw a four-cornered fight in the 2016 state polls.

Despite holding the seat since 2006, Ranum, 70, is not one to be comfortable with his incumbent status.

"I have to admit the contest is challenging this time around. I have been telling people and my supporters that we need to work harder to secure a win.

"PSB is contesting 70 seats as we aim to form the new state government. We want to end the practice of favouritism as right now, we feel discriminated (by the state government). Even when we were with the state government, development allocations (to its elected representatives) were not distributed fairly," he said when speaking to Bernama recently.

In the 2016 state polls, Ranum ran on a Barisan Nasional (BN) ticket.

Ranum said at times, there were insufficient infrastructure development funds for his constituency, but he makes it a point to ensure most of the projects are completed the following year.

As for Billy entering the same ring this time, Ranum said he has already accepted that fact, despite considering his nephew his political protege.

Billy, 53, meanwhile, said Ranum will always be his mentor, but that will not stop him from giving his uncle a good fight.

He sees a huge need in Opar for further development, especially in terms of infrastructure and new commercial centres. The constituency is made up of a population mostly involved in crop and fruit farming such as oil palm, pepper, pineapple, durian and mangosteen.

"It is difficult if there is no town centre to boost the economy. We have the small town of Lundu but it comes under the Tanjung Datu constituency. So, we have to have our own.

"We have seasonal fruits and non-seasonal fruits as well. With a new administrative centre, we can establish collection centres for these fruits to be stored while waiting to be marketed," he said.

Billy, one of the 24 new faces to be featured by GPS in this election, said close cooperation between the four component parties within the coalition is key in winning Opar, which has a 95 per cent Bidayuh population.

There are 11,436 registered voters in Opar, of which 45.23 per cent are aged between 30 and 49.

The other four contestants for the seat are Mereng Biris (PKR), Saini Kakong of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB), Bayang Telon from Parti Sedar Rakyat Sarawak (SEDAR) and Parti Bumi Kenyalang's Freedy Misid.

In the 11th state polls, Ranum won the seat with a majority of 2,082 votes.

-- BERNAMA