RM80 MILLIONS SPENT ON BATU SAPI BY-ELECTION?

Dear Editor,

I refer to the issues raised by 'Batu Sapi Voters' in the Daily Express Forum on the topic 'Opposition Picked Irrelevant Issues in Batu Sapi' on November 14, 2010.

Ansari was rightly chosen as candidate bearing PKR's banner representing the Pakatan Rakyat's coalition of PAS, DAP and PKR for the P.185 Batu Sapi by-election. Ansari's candidacy with strong support from PAS and DAP forced all UMNO and BN top leaders to come to Batu Sapi and pour the constituency with lots of goodies and empty promises yet again.

Not convinced that they can win the by-election with their routine election promises and broken promises unfulfilled since last election, the UMNO/BN leaders abused government machineries, the Navy, the Police, the Special Branch, the Information Department, JKR, the Election Commission, the Welfare Department, the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara, etc., to serve their whims and fancies.

Here, we see in clear broad daylight that PKR is not just facing the PBS candidate representing the Barisan Nasional, but Ansari is facing the entire BN's government and the machineries under the control of UMNO/BN leaders using funds from the taxpayers! What a disgrace and uncivilized way of winning a by-election!

Ansari's presence was a blessing to the Malaysians at large as his fated falling from the broken jetty, abandoned for the last 10 years, in a constituency under BN's control for more than 2 terms, exposes the fallacies, lies and cheats of the UMNO/BN leaders!

The fall was flashed to the whole world and testimony of UMNO/BN's leaders lies of 'Sabah Baru' which they promised to realize in the last general election. What a nonsense of of the promised Sabah Baru when even a jetty, a basic necessity for kampong folks could not even be replaced? About 60 Navy (TLDM) personnel were deployed as conscripts to replace the broken jetty, a clear evidence of abuse on government machinery.

To say that Ansari was the only known person to have fallen into the sea from the broken bridge was absolute lies. There have been several deaths involving children who fell and drowned into the sea for the past years. Batu Sapi voters could not hide these facts because the news were reported in local dailies.

Injuries inflicted on kampong folks due to the fall using the broken bridge at night were numerous but went unreported. The fated fall on Ansari, a high-profile personality, vindicated UMNO/BN's hypocrisy culture of attending to the people's needs only once in every 5 years. They left the people for 5 years, and pretending to listen to them only during election day.

On how Ansari was going to develop Batu Sapi if he is elected as its new MP, 'Batu Sapi voters' should be thankful that even before Ansari was elected as the new MP, his presence as Pakatan Rakyat's candidate has scared away the BN leaders so much so that not less than 40,000 zinc sheets were given away to the voters by BN leaders, repair broken bridges, giving cash handouts to people on the 5 islands, giving away bags of rice, expediting the issuances of Birth Certificates to those who have even reached the age of more than 30 years, delivered not less 2,000 laptops to Batu Sapi folks and lots more.

What do you call all these handouts? Development? Or a form of corrupt practice and abuse on taxpayers's money? Why did not the Election Commission charge them under Section 10 of the Election Offences Act? Doesn't this tantamount to the Election Commission compromising and abetting on BN's violation of the election rules?

With not less than RM80 millions being spent on Batu Sapi by-election, UMNO/BN should be ashamed to the people of Malaysia that their elected MPs won because of corrupt practices which in Thailand would have been nullified!

Regards,

ZAHAJJ

Batu Sapi, Sandakan