A potential candidate for Sarikei

suppadmin | March 30, 2018

Sarikei constituency potential candidate, Teng Ung Woo aged 45 was told that despite being a new comer in this coming GE 14, he has the upper hand due to his hard work and caring attitude towards the people.

Teng modestly said he considered every election a battle field and there is no such thing as an easy win.

A political secretary to the Chief Minister, Teng who was tipped to stand in the last State election in Repok graciously gave way to Dato’ Sri Huang Tiong Sii. Not one to fight or quarrel for position, Teng would just go to the ground to do his part. Every weekdays, he divides his time between Sarikei and Bintangor, combing through as many area as he could in all the 280 longhouses in Sarikei.

Now facing the incumbent DAP, Teng who is a familiar face in Bintangor and Sarikei still believed that he has to fight to the end to achieve a win.

A full time politician, Teng graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance. He used to work in the banking line before going full time into politics.

Vowing to do his best, Teng reckoned that for the past decades when Sarikei was taken by the Opposition, he saw many opportunities of development passing them by.

“Sarikei people suffered the biggest loss. Either there is no development or there is a delay in development. The worst is the infrastructure which affects the rural people. There were still longhouses which did not have treated water or electricity. The number may be small, but the people’s sufferings are the same,” he pointed out.

For the longhouses that do not have treated water, Teng said these longhouses did not have the funds to lay down the pipes.

Teng saw a lot of problems in schools especially where maintenance is concerned. “There are many run-down schools even in town area. These included hostels, teachers’ offices and toilets. What is spoilt rarely gets repaired and the teachers are still diligent even though they work through such poor condition,” he said.

He hoped that once the BN takes back Sarikei, he would see to it that these are some of the priorities he would set out to do, to ease the lives of the people.

On the opposition candidate, Teng said he is not concern about who will be contesting. To me, he added, I just go to the ground, meet as many people as possible and assist them in ways I can. For the last 20 years, Teng added that he has been doing it following other SUPP leaders to help out. His journey can at times take him to the remote longhouses where in some areas, he has to walk in due to the lack of proper roads.

Despite being so busy in his political work, Teng makes it a point to send his children to school so that he can spend quality time with them. Even at the short distance from his house to the school, his three children aged 11, 13 and 15 would chat with him and share with him their school life.

Coming from a close knit family, Teng also would try to sneak in some time for his mother and grandmother. When he was recently ‘bullied’, an issue which he did not wish to reveal, Teng was shocked to find his mother in tears when he met up with her that weekend. “This was not the first time my mother shed tears for me and I comforted her that in politics, there are times when things can be difficult. But as my party Secretary general, Datuk Sebastian told me, never take things personally but instead move on to prove to the people that I can work for them and I will be there for them, even in my most difficult moments,” he said.

Calling to the Sarikei people to give him a chance should he be nominated, Teng said his priority is to take care of the Sarikei people’s welfare and give them a better future they deserve. “This is my hope and aspiration, making Sarikei better than ever,” he added.