Fatimah assures her ministry will continue to work hard despite BN loss

KUCHING: Barisan Nasional (BN) Sarawak's win in Mukah parliamentary seat is a bittersweet joy following the victory of Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the 14th general election (GE14).

Regardless of that, Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah has assured that they will continue to work hard in serving the people.

"Even though we have won P213 (Mukah parliamentary seat), our happiness is tinged with a feeling of great sadness," she said in a message over the phone yesterday.

The new BN member of parliament (MP) for Mukah Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib, the youngest daughter of Head of State Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, garnered a total of 13,853 votes against 6,853 votes by Abdul Jalil Bujang from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), winning with a majority of 7,000 votes.

The constituency has a total of 21,205 registered voters. There were 379 spoilt votes and voter turnout was about 69.3 per cent.

With the state BN becoming the opposition at federal level but remained the ruling party at state level, Fatimah emphasised that major adjustments were expected on their part politically, administratively, financially as well as personally.

"What should not be changed is that we must continue to serve God, work for community and social wellbeing, preserving harmony and goodwill in our beloved Fairland Sarawak and Malaysia negaraku," she stressed.

On whether ongoing and planned development in the state will be affected with the change in power, she replied: "Legally projects that have been agreed, contracted out and signed, that shouldn't change."

On whether national issues were to be blamed for BN's poor performance this election, she said a post mortem would be carried out.

Fatimah, who is Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Sarawak (PBB) Women chief, congratulated Hanifah for her win and thanked everyone involved for their high commitment and hard work this GE14.

"I also want to apologise to all election machinery in the branches and sub-branches level if my words have been wrong or actions have offended them when I was carrying out my duty since nomination day on April 28 and throughout the campaigning period," she said.