BAU, May 3: Politics is about never giving up. This is what Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) Mas Gading candidate Mordi Bimol believes.
Born in Kuching, Mordi and his family eventually moved back to their village in Kampung Suba Bandar, Bau after the death of his father in 2004. He remained in Bau until today.
A graduate in Aquatic Science and Resources from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), he became the youngest Bidayuh lad to enter politics at the age of 26.
He made his first election appearance two years later for Mas Gading parliamentary seat in the 13th General Election.
Being a young and rookie politician, Mordi faced a tough fight as it was a four-cornered fight to see who could gain Bau voters’ trust.
He managed to garner 5,293 votes against Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Anthony Nogeh Gumbek’s 8,265 votes, independent candidate Datuk Tiki Lafe’s 6,109 votes and STAR Patrick Uren’s 462 votes.
In the 11th state election, he stood in Tasik Biru and lost by only 1,288 votes. Mordi managed to secure 5,634 votes against BN’s Datuk Henry Harry Jinep’s 6,922 votes.
This 14th General Election (GE14), Mordi, who is in his second attempt to unseat BN in the Bidayuh majority constituency of Bau will see a straight fight with incumbent Nogeh.
Sharing his mission and vision for if he wins in GE14, Mordi said the following form his main agenda which he will push for in Parliament:
1. Solutions on birth certificate and citizenship issues involving rural communities in the state, especially stateless children who are deprived of education;
2. Policies to control commodity prices involving agricultural products in Sabah and Sarawak;
3. Policies to boost the agriculture sector in rural areas through modern technology;
4. Push for more new and the upgrading of existing health clinics in every district in the state;
5. Be the voice for youths in Parliament, especially in formulating policies involving economic development and entrepreneurship among the younger generation; and
6. Policies to help women in rural areas to be independent and improve their income.
Meanwhile, his local agenda will be:
1. Develop the policies on native customary rights (NCR) land as well as issue grants to all land owned by the indigenous people in Sabah and Sarawak;
2. Propose new plots for existing villages to accommodate the growing population in Mas Gading;
3. Ensure the completion of abandoned projects in Mas Gading;
4. Ensure sufficient treated water and electricity supplies throughout Mas Gading and issues resolved so that it is no longer a political issue at every election;
5. Ensure all the roads to villages in Mas Gading are paved, with proper streetlights including those that are not affected by the Pan Borneo Highway project;
6. Solve parking problems at Bau Hospital, and Lundu and Bau towns;
7. Ensure telecommunications coverage throughout Mas Gading is at a satisfactory level;
8. Upgrade computer or community Internet centres throughout Mas Gading especially for students, village committees and churches;
9. Open agricultural roads in stages throughout Mas Gading, identify existing agricultural firms with the potential of providing high technology access to farmers in line with the initiatives towards modern agriculture and design mechanisms to stabilize agriculture products such as pepper prices to bring substantial returns to entrepreneurs and to draw the interest of young people to sustain the industry;
10. Re-plan tourism development in Bau-Lundu-Sematan to become major tourist destinations in Sarawak. The diversity of the landforms such as lakes, rivers, seas, beaches, hills, mountains, waterfalls, caves in Bau-Lundu-Sematan should be maximized as tourism capital. With its unique traditional farming products and interesting places, Bau-Lundu-Sematan can certainly be a great tourist destination and thus create more business and employment opportunities;
11. Ensure that education facilities and infrastructure in Mas Gading are in satisfactory condition especially in boarding schools. This is important for the comfort of the children and to encourage them to study; and
12. Propose agricultural research and training centres in Lundu provide opportunities to Mas Gading folks who want to learn about agriculture without going through formal or time-consuming classroom education. This is in line with the initiative to develop Mas Gading as a modern agricultural centre. — DayakDaily
