ANWAR PLANS TO RETURN PD TO GLORY DAYS
PKR candidate shares his plans for PD
ONCE upon a time, Port Dickson’s beaches attracted holidaymakers among Southeast Asia’s elite. Singapore Premier Lee Hsien Loong, too, remembers many a happy childhood memories, frolicking on the beaches here, said PKR president-elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“When I met him in Singapore recently, he said his late father Lee Kuan Yew took the family for holidays in Port Dickson.
“But, he said, the water was no longer clean like in the past.”
Anwar said the coastal town needed to reclaim its former glory and return to a time when it was a well-known tourist spot among people in Singapore and Indonesia.
He, however, said the wheels were in motion with AirAsia’s recent announcement that it wanted to promote the town as a tourist destination.
“I want to start a campaign to clean the beaches here. Who will join me?” he said to a cheering crowd in a Chinese coffee shop in Lukut here on Friday.
“You say yes now, but when I get to the beach at 8am, it will just be me and a few others there,” Anwar said jokingly during a breakfast gathering, which was also attended by DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.
It would appear that cleaning up Port Dickson’s beaches is part of Anwar’s manifesto.
He said if he was elected, he would rope in hotels and potential developers to clean up the beaches.
He is concerned about the town’s sluggish Internet access, which he planned to boost with the help of Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
Apart from that, he has offered to ensure adequate affordable and public housing for the people here.
He also shared his plans to help local workers improve their job prospects and embark on a structural plan to propel Port Dickson to greater heights.
Anwar further entertained the Bukit Pelanduk community at its Indian cultural night on Friday by dancing along to an MG Ramachandran (MGR) song.
He danced to the song for a duration of three minutes alongside an impersonator of the iconic actor.
“I am happy because I can dance to this song. I also know its lyrics to some extent,” he said.