KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 — Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Cameron Highlands hopeful M. Manogaran today dominated a debate organised by election watchdog by Bersih 2.0 and said he was upset that Barisan Nasional (BN) rival Ramli Mohd Noor had refused to participate.
“I was quite disappointed when I found out that the BN candidate isn’t participating. Is Bersih going to take any action against him? I would like to know what his stance is on the issues brought up today?
“I feel if he doesn’t have the courage to come up and face the community, if he doesn’t have the courage as a candidate, how can he speak up in Parliament?” Manogaran said during his winding-up speech.
The debate, which was aired ‘live’ on Astro Awani, also saw the two independent candidates Wong Seng Yee and Sallehudin Ab Talib sharing their thoughts on local and national issues and their possible development plans for Cameron Highlands.
However, it was obvious that Manogaran, as a former Teluk Intan MP, was the more seasoned politician as he dominated most of the issues raised by moderator Associate Professor Faisal Hazis, who is also a senior fellow at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
The Pahang DAP deputy chairman, who essentially triggered the by-election with his petition over election irregularities to the Election Court, said he wants to bring comprehensive development to the federal seat.
At the same time, he said the Orang Asli community, who makes up 22 per cent of constituents, must be respected and brought into the mainstream.
“We should not be telling them that we are going to bring basic infrastructure to their villages. That is already a given. But to me, we should give the Orang Asli respect. They should not be sidelined, and we should move forward together to achieve development.
“We must give them dignity. We cannot blame the Orang Asli community because that is the weakness of the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa). We need to look at and amend the Aboriginal People’s Act. Jakoa focuses too much on administrative issues.
“That is not enough. We must give them better support in other matters as well, such as create an enabling environment for them to go to school,” said Manogaran.
His comments were in stark contrast to independent Sallehudin, who came across as more condescending towards the Orang Asli, saying that the government should replace their ancestral lands that were taken away, instead of not touching them at all, as proposed by Manogaran.
While appearing to want the best for the Orang Asli, Sallehudin’s ideas on how to assist them seemed to stem from an academic arrogance, which could be linked to his background as an educator.
He said the Orang Asli must be educated and brought into the mainstream, pointing out that there is a high illiteracy rate in the community.
“This illiteracy leads to their inferiority complex and they cannot compete with their peers because they’re not educated nor do they want to be educated. Their mindset must change so they can compete at a national level,” said Sallehudin.
The third debater Wong focused on his campaign platform of sustainable agriculture development.
The farmer, who has lived in Cameron Highland for 35 years, dreams of turning the constituency into an example of Agriculture 4.0 for the rest of Malaysia.
“My cause is food security. We can start this in Cameron Highlands so it can be the national example. We can then expand this plan nationwide.
“My plan is to create a policy for highland agriculture that is environmentally sustainable. We must increase our technology where the way forward for Cameron Highlands is Agriculture 4.0,” said Wong.
