Awang Tengah chides opposition candidates in Tanjong Datu by-election

Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) acting deputy president Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan today chided the two opposition candidates contesting in the Tanjong Datu by-election for failing to come up with more substantial and original issues in their campaignings.

He said they had merely tried to claim and champion what the state government had been doing all the while.

"There is no need for the opposition candidates to assume they can do even better jobs or to claim credit for doing so.

"There is also no need for them to spread lies and to criticise the government in their efforts to disuade the voters from casting their votes in favour of the BN candidate Datuk Amar Jamilah Anu," he said.

Awang Tengah, who is also state Minister of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development, Trade and Investment, said this when officiating at a Food Industry Entrepreneurship Strengthening Programme here today.

Among others, he said, the state government has been finding amicable solutions to the Native Customary Right (NCR) land issues and in getting back the state rights as contained in the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

He said the state government under the leadership of the late Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem and now his successor Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg had been giving priorities to these issues all along.

Jamilah, 61, the widow of Adenan and the Tanjong Datu incumbent, is being challenged by Rapelson Richard Hamit of the PBDS Baru and Johnny Aput of STAR (State Reform Party) in the by-election this Saturday.

Awang Tengah also thanked the bigger opposition parties like the state PKR and the DAP for staying out of the by-election out of respect for the late Adenan.

Meanwhile Awang Tengah also announced a government grant of RM20 million to develop Lundu Industrial Park on an initial site of eight hectares out of the allocated 20 hectares under its first phase.

He said the site was to accommodate entrepreneurs who faced problems in getting a site to operate their respective businesses. --BERNAMA