Gambar oleh Abdullah Yusof
CAMERON HIGHLANDS: The orang Asli community must work hard to ensure that they elect Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Ramli Mat Nor as this will lead to the community's first elected representative in the Dewan Rakyat.
Umno vice president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaacob said electing Ramli would enable the voices of the Orang Asli to be heard in the Dewan Rakyat, with their needs tackled in a more effetive manner.
“Now they (Orang Asli) have an opportunity and for sure they will work hard to ensure victory for their community.
"I have told the Semai Orang Asli that there are 18 Orang Asli tribes in Malaysia and the one (picked) as a candidate is from the Semai tribe in Cameron Highlands and as such they should not pass up the opportunity to ensure his (Ramli) victory.
"This is why I see Pakatan Harapan (PH) focusing more on the Orang Asli to divert their support from BN. I saw yesterday that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was on the ground, JAKOA (Orang Asli Development Department) organised a closed door course for Tok Batins and infact PM (Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) himself is expected to go down to Post Betau.
“Now, all the focus is on the Orang Asli community,” Ismail Sabri told reporters after a campaign walkabout at the Brinchang Market, here, today.
He added that despite PH directing its election machinery to focus on the Orang Asli community, BN was nevertheless confident that the community would want to create history by having an elected representative from their community.
He said the Orang Asli community would be the main contributor to ensuring a BN victory and they could not be influenced by slander, bribes as well as allegations created by PH to gain their support.
“As such, I belive that the support of the Orang Asli community is still with BN," he said.
Ismail Sabri meanwhile claimed that the move by the Federal Government to sue the Kelantan state government on behalf of the Orang Asli in the east coast state was to garner support for the by-election in Cameron Highlands.
“I don’t see it as an intelligent move but rather see it as a move involving the by-election because such a move will garner support for PH from the Orang Asli community in Cameron Highlands.
“We can see that a lot has been done by the past federal government (under BN) to develop the Orang Asli community," he added.
Ismail Sabri further claimed it was sad that financial provisions for the community’s wellbeing had already been approved by the previous government but has since been cancelled.
He also alleged that he learned no allocation had been provided for the Orang Asli this year.
He claimed this included the One Stop Centre project in Kelantan and Cameron Highlands involving millions of ringgit.
