KUCHING, May 4 — Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian went on the stump with the widow of the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem last night in a bid to increase support for Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Stampin parliamentary seat.

Datuk Jamilah Anu reminded voters of her late husband’s contributions as Sarawak chief minister to help put the Borneo state back on equal footing as an equal partner in the Malaysian federation.

She said Sarawak would have reclaimed those rights had her husband not died on January 11 last year.

“God loves Tok Nan more than we do, but we will still have to continue to fight what he had started in reclaiming those rights,” Jamilah said at a political rally in support of Dr Sim at Kampung Haji Baki near here.

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Tok Nan was the nickname for the immensely popular Adnan who succeeded Tun Taib Mahmud in 2014 and led Sarawak to an even bigger victory in the 2016 state election.

Jamilah, who succeeded Adenan as Tanjong Datu assemblyman, said her late husband had given utmost priority to reclaiming Sarawak’s autonomy in the state election manifesto.

She added that his goal is being continued by the rest of his state Cabinet team, including Dr Sim whom she described as a close family friend for the past 20 years.

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“I know he has helped a lot of heart patients and he is the one who talked to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to set up the Sarawak Heart Centre in Kota Samarahan,” Jamilah said of Dr Sim, who is also a cardiologist.

Dr Sim was previously head of the Sarawak Heart Foundation while Jamilah chairs its board of directors.

She called on Stampin voters to reject DAP, which she described as an outsider party and does not hold Sarawak rights close to its heart.

On the other hand, she said Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), of which Dr Sim is its current president, has been fighting for Sarawakians and their rights since it was formed in 1959.

“Only SUPP and Dr Sim can work for the Stampin people, so don’t trust DAP and what it claims to represent for,” she said, telling the voters that they have a simple choice of only casting their votes for Dr Sim in Stampin and Kho Teck Wan in Bandar Kuching in GE14.

Dr Sim is facing Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen in Stampin, which has 66,240  registered voters, in GE14.