My Visit to Serian, Sarawak

On 21 February 2012, I went to Serian, Sarawak, last Thursday. It is one and a half hour from Kuching by road.

I was invited by our DAP candidate Edward Luak to visit Serian Parliamentary constituency.

The constituency is huge with 140 villages and about 33,000 voters in this area. Majority of the people here are Catholics and Christians.

To my surprise, every village has a small Catholic Chapel. That means there are more than hundred churches and chapels in this constituency.

I had lunch with Serian St Theresa Catholic Church’s priest and nuns 

Photo outside St. Theresa’s Church with church members and DAP Serian Branch Chairman, Mr. Edward Luak (the first from right) and his team

I was informed that there is an awakening of the people here as they are very upset that their land being grabbed BN cronies.

As I travelled around the constituency with Edward Luak, he briefed me on various road construction works by BN with excessive price. For example, a 2.3km road at Kg Sora Melayu, which does not connect the main road with the village, costs RM12.5 million.

Besides, the 8km Kg Terbat Mabu road at Kedup area costs RM60 million. This project was announced in 1999 and only recently Muhyiddin went for earth-breaking for second time, but it is not completed until today.

Another 50 meter long road that was just re-tarred near Kg. Lebore costs RM1 million.

All these prices of road construction work shock me, because the price has been marked up so much. I think the cost has been marked up nearly 4 times. Terrible 🙁

In the villages and places that I visited, many villagers came out to meet us. In the past, the DAP representatives can’t even enter into the villages. Now villagers are pretty upset over land grabbed by BN or Taib controlled companies and they start to show interest in alternatives like DAP.

I’m pleased to see the awakening of the indigenous people of Sarawak. Interior areas like Serian are no more “black areas” for DAP and Pakatan Rakyat. We need to work harder from now on, and there’s hope … 🙂

This is Mr. Nelson Kundai Ngareng, former State Assemblyman for Tarat, Sarawak. In his speech, he described BN Coalition Parties as an old cloth that is useless and should be thrown away

The Kg. Entebuh villagers and I raised our hands to support for Change

 

I visited St. Francis Catholic Church at Kg. Mentu Tapu where I was given a souvenir by the church

I spoke to a ceramah at Kg. Mentu Tapu

The Kg Mentu Tapu folks used RM5,000 which I raised for them to cement the floor of the whole church. I am very impressed by their cost effectiveness

I visited St. Jude Church at Serian Constituency

I have lunch with some villagers at Kg. Mentung Marau before I left for Kuching International Airport