In the battle for votes to improve roads, Star says it'll get a 3km road fixed
SABAH POLLS | Star's incumbent Bingkor candidate Robert Tawik says he has managed to get a project to pave 3km of the dirt and gravel road in Mukim Bunga Raya to be carried out under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP)
The Star (Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku Rakyat) candidate said this in response to villagers who promised to cast their ballots for whoever can get the village's main road paved.
According to Robert, he had brought the matter up with the Warisan state government at the end of last year, but was told that they could not afford to carry out the project.
Instead, the incumbent assemblyperson submitted a request to the Public Works Department (PWD) through the Keningau District Office to pave nine roads, including the one in Mukim Bunga Raya and another in Kampung Mongitom.
The PWD responded on Feb 19 that it would include the request under its 12MP (2021 to 2025) proposal. This included RM16 million to pave Jalan Mongitom Bungaraya Kikiran.
However, Robert said he has not received any update on whether this has been approved.
Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported that villagers from Mukim Bunga Raya had come up with their own election offering: that they would cast their votes for whoever can tar the village's main road, as well as build two new bridges.
Read more: Sabah Decides 2020: Making sense of the players, parties and battles
Their offer of "ada aspal ada undi" (we’ll vote if there’s asphalt) has been up since 14th general election, but has yet to be fulfilled.
The 6km road was last paved just before the 2008 general election, and 3km of it still remains unpaved.
Meanwhile, the DAP candidate for Bingkor, Peter Saili, promised to bring up the matter to the Sabah State Assembly.
However, Peter said, it would be impossible to tar the road before polling day next week,
"We (Warisan Plus) had only been in power for 26 months. We did not expect the State Legislature to be dissolved so suddenly.
"It's impossible to do it (tar the road) before polling day," he told Malaysiakini.
In GE14, Peter won in the Bunga Raya polling district with a total of 258 votes, but the six-cornered contest for Bingkor was ultimately won by Robert from Star.
Sabahans will vote for their state assemblypersons on Saturday, Sept 26, which has 73 elected seats.
Follow Malaysiakini's coverage of the Sabah state election here.
