BINTULU: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party’s (Aspirasi) Jepak candidate Chieng Lea Phing has vowed to subsidise all types of basic food if he is elected assemblyman come Nov 4.
He said following price hikes in food products, the people’s cost of living has become a burden to them.
“Therefore, if I am given the chance to be the assemblyman during the by-election, I will allocate all my money to the people to provide subsidies on all types of food, especially rice,” he told the media here Tuesday (Oct 24).
Commenting further, he said he had already started by distributing nearly 1,000 rice packs to the people of the Jepak area, especially the B40 group, since four days ago.
“You can see that our people are suffering and have no money to buy rice. So I try to contribute a little by giving rice because people can starve if there is no food.
“Therefore, if you need help, you can come to me at my gold pawn shop here. This effort is to save and help our people who do not have money to buy food,” he said.
As for his focus on empowering the youth, he said it is difficult to prioritise at the moment because the people are more concerned over the rising cost of living.
“Young people today don’t have time to talk about politics. Their main focus now is how to survive in this bad economic situation.
“How can they talk about the future when now they are only focusing on finding money to buy food so they don’t starve? Besides, the price of goods in Bintulu is very high compared to other places in Malaysia,” he said.
Apart from that, he said, he also wants to solve a number of other problems, especially related to basic infrastructure facilities.
The Jepak by-election will see a three cornered fight between Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) candidate Iskandar Turkee, 54, Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) candidate Stevenson Joseph Sumbang, 42, and Chieng, 62.
The by-electin is held after the incumbent Datuk Talib Zulpilip, 72, died of kidney complications in September.
