Wooing youths back to Sandakan By Rebecca Chong
SANDAKAN: Democratic Action Party (DAP) candidate for the Sandakan parliamentary byelection, Vivian Wong Shir Yee, said that one of her visions for Sandakan is to woo local youths who have gone elsewhere to seek better job opportunities to return home by working to boost the economy here through the tourism industry.
“Local youths here have gone elsewhere to seek better job opportunities. Everyone one of us in Sandakan knows one person or two who have moved out of Sandakan to work. These youths want to be in Sandakan, they want to be close to home, but it is hard to find jobs here.
“So I want to ensure that Sandakan has enough quality job opportunities to motivate these youths to stay in Sandakan. This could happen if the economy in Sandakan is good, and I believe the fastest way to achieve that now is to boost the tourism industry here,” she said.
Wong said that youths love to travel and visit places, so as a young woman, she also has some good ideas on how to attract visitors to Sandakan.
“I would make Sandakan interesting enough for people from all over the place to want to come and visit. This is what we will do. Young people love to travel so we will need to have attractions so that they would come here,” she said, adding that her ideas include street art, special murals and tricycle by the sea.
Wong said this during her first campaign after nomination day on Saturday. The talk organised by DAP was attended by some 1,000 people.
Also present to show support for Wong were DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, Damansara member of parliament Tony Pua, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law) Datuk Liew Vui Keong, Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Frankie Poon Ming Fung, Rural Development Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick and Elopura assemblyman Calvin Chong Ket Kiun.
Meanwhile, Vivian Wong’s mother, Datin Florence Chong, spoke on stage for the first time after the passing of her husband, the late Datuk Stephen Wong.
Chong said that she wanted to let her daughter finish the unfinished tasks left by her late husband.
“When my husband passed away, I had the most difficult time. He not only left a widow and his children, he also left us, the people of Sandakan, and he also left behind his unfinished tasks and unfulfilled visions. Therefore, I sincerely ask for the people of Sandakan to vote for my daughter; allow her to finish her father’s tasks. My family’s votes are not enough, we need your votes. We hope that the locals would vote for Vivian. For those who have not decided who to vote for, please think rationally and think about what the late Stephen had done for us,” she said.
Chong then shared that two weeks before Wong passed away, she received a call from a headmistress telling her that students from a few schools in the rural areas did not have school shoes because they could not afford them.
“My husband then promised to distribute school shoes to the children in June. He promised me that we would go together, but he is gone before he could do that. So I hope that you would cast your votes for Vivian, so that I could then go to the rural schools with her to distribute the shoes,” she said.
Lim also gave a speech in which he also asked for the locals to vote for Vivian so that she could complete her father’s unfinished missions.
He also said that the byelection in Sandakan is important to the future of Malaysia, as Pakatan Harapan has to ensure that DAP wins the seat to show Malaysians that the rakyat still have confidence in the government.
“If we win here in Sandakan, it will show Malaysians how the locals still trust and have confidence in Pakatan Harapan, hence, in the next election we will have higher chance to win.
“We have to win to give Sabah its rightful status, as Pakatan Harapan is fighting to restore Sabah’s rights. As we can see in Parliament, Article 1 (2) MA63 amendment bill was rejected because the members of opposition party from Sabah opted not to vote.
“They have betrayed the people of Sabah. Don’t cast your votes for betrayers,” he stressed.
Lim also said that in order to see development in Sandakan and to revive Sandakan, industries in Sandakan have to be developed.
“The past government only knows how to talk, don’t know how to do. We want to boost the economy in Sandakan, we need a representative that could work with the government. This is important.
“Just look at the budget that we provide for development projects in Sandakan. We are not BN (Barisan Nasional), announce (development project) this year, get allocation two years later. We are different, we announce this year and the allocation would be channelled in the same year,” he added.