Sarikei Pol sec Teng Ung Woo strive to do his best

suppadmin | October 16, 2017

Potential candidate for Sarikei, Teng Ung Woo is one person who works like a bull. Teng who is also the Political Secretary to the Chief Minister is one person who did not want to play politics but rather go to the ground and do more than what he is expected to do so.

Although he was tipped to be a candidate for Repok constituency in the last State election and had worked the ground hard to prepare for the election, he, however stepped aside when businessman Dato’ Sri Huang Tiong Sii was nominated.

Not one to feel slighted or revengeful after being sidelined, Teng continued to campaign for Huang, who won the election.

A familiar face in both Sarikei and Bintangor, Teng would go on the ground to do what he felt he should do.

After being appointed political secretary to the Chief Minister a year ago and recently had been re-appointed for a second term, Teng who is a full time politician said he would make it a point to go to SUPP Sarikei service centre every Tuesday, Bintangor every Wednesday and the rest of the days and weekends moving where he is needed or cover the area in both Bintangor and Sarikei.

In an interview with Teng, who graduated from New Zealand with Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance, spoke lovingly of his pineapple town, Sarikei which he believes will be as advanced as any city one day.

Infrastructure needed

At the moment, he said it is a semi-urban area where the majority of the people still rely on agriculture for their livelihood. “Unfortunately, a lot of infrastructure is not that advance and the People are still relying heavily on the government for subsid in term of agricultural needs and facilities,” he said.

The schools too, he added, need a lot of improvement and assistance from the government. In Sarikei alone, there are over 40 primary Chinese schools where the majority of the students are Dayaks. There are about 100 primary schools in Sarikei alone and many of the schools lack basic needs.

Teng said the sad thing is that most of these schools are deep in the rural area with poor road condition, no proper electricity, leaking roofs and sport facilities which were not maintained. Some of these schools, he said have less than 100 pupils. He said it was unfortunate that due to such situation, the pupils’ loss out in term of extra curriculum or inter-school competitions as they could not afford to join.

In certain areas in Sarikei, Teng said the water system is not installed and areas that needed piped water are Meradong Scheme B, Sg. Petai, Selidap. Electricity also posed a major problem in many developing areas due to the high usage which was not upgraded especially Sg. Tulai.

As Sarikei parliamentary constituency is under the Opposition, Teng said there is less funding thus a lot of development has come to a standstill.

“Sarikei need more better roads and bridges and these are allocations for road maintenances as some are still kampong roads or truck roads,” he added.

Agriculture – one source of livelihood for Sarikeians

As the majority of the rural people are Ibans and farmers, Teng hoped that they will get funding from Integrated Agriculture development agency (AIDA) where they can do farming on a large scale which will be managed by the Agriculture Ministry.

“Besides, the rural areas are not only interested in getting help on Agriculture as they hoped that they will have better internet connectivity especially in schools. This will let them get in touch with the outside world and also make their work a lot easier,” he added.

Teng stressed that not only the rural folks need a helping hand but all the races – even those in the town area. “Economy is bad now . The business communities in Sarikei and Bintangor are feeling the pinch of higher cost of living which is affecting the whole country.

The two towns are suffering from brain drain due to lack of opportunity of work. “We need more projects, more employment to ensure that the youngsters stay put so that we can move on to a brighter future. Otherwise, many youngsters will leave the towns which will be filled with the elderly and the children. This is not healthy for the growth of any town,” he said.

Asking those who had advanced themselves in the field of Agricultural studies, Teng hoped that these educated youngsters will return to get the E-Agricultural industrial going. “We need such people to be at the helm and I am sure the government is always ready to help out if there is manpower to go into huge scale agriculture. We have the land and many people are dependent on the agriculture for the livelihood,” he added.

By using modern technology for Agriculture, Teng said there will be a higher profit margin for farmers as this will cut out the middle man sector. He said Sarikei is famous for its pineapples, oil palm, cocoa, grava, green oranges, durians and bird nests.

Autonomy

On the political arena, Teng is all for autonomy in terms of asking back rights on education, land issues, health and Immigration. He stressed that Sarawakians are merely asking for whatever belong to us to be returned. Stating that the conditions were laid out when Sabah, Sarawak , Malaya and Singapore joined. That is why, he said, there needed more BN MP from Sarawak. There is no point for the Opposition as he added that they listened to their federal bosses.

Teng said he has full confidence in Chief Minister, Datuk Amar Abang Johari’s leadership as the latter has vowed to continue the legacy of the late CM Datuk Patinggi Adenan Satem. He said Abang Jo has the far-sighted to boost up IT with the construction of the Telco towers even for rural areas. These are what the people are looking and if we planned ahead, we can be as good as Singapore, he stated.

When interviewed, a 65 year-old coffee shop owner who declined to be named said he has seen how Teng had worked. He said Sarikei need new blood and politicians who worked hard for the people.

The shop owner said although he did not know Teng personally, there were a lot of good feedback about him from people patronizing his coffee shop. “He is willing to work hard and is a full time politician. As Chinese will say, he works like ‘cow and horse’. SUPP certainly needs this type of leader,” he added.