KUCHING : Democratic Action Party (DAP) Serian Chairman, Edward Luwat has criticised former Human Resources Minister, Dato’ Sri Richard Riot Jaem who seems to be unaware that the people of Serian love the country and want to play their role in saving the country by donating to the Tabung Harapan fund. Edward said the country was in such a state due to the bad governance of the previous government.
He was responding to Riot’s statement saying he was baffled at the fund raising dinner to raise fund for the Tabung Harapan fund in Serian recently.
“I am indeed baffled by the bafflement of Riot and his criticism of the dinner. Is Riot not aware that the Christians in his constituency contribute to their church every Sunday? Is Riot unaware that the churches in villages organise yearly fund raising food fairs, jumble sales and dinners for their churches? Why single out our effort in raising fund for Tabung Harapan? “The people of Malaysia have shown their support in contributing towards “Tabung Harapan” to help the government ease the financial burden of the country.
The Catholic Church in Malaysia alone has announced that it has collected over RM1 million from Catholics across the nation towards the fund. “Riot should bear in mind that we are now in an era of New Malaysia.
It is best that he does not issue knee-jerk statements ridiculing the wisdom of the electorates of Serian who have chosen to show their appreciation as Pakatan Harapan supporters,” he added. As an Member of Parliament, Riot should first and foremost look into other more important matters rather than mock a joyous post GE14 celebration, said Edward, adding that if Riot was trying to jump over the fence with this sort of mediocre reaction, then he was not worth his salt as an elected representative as Serian had far more issues to contend with.
Edward pointed out that Serian folks were not poor; they were professionals and industrious people. It was not fair ridiculing the people. Over 1000 turned up at the “Tabung Harapan” dinner and they were there willingly, to offer what they could to show their love. “A contribution of 10 sen by the poor means more than a much bigger contribution by the rich. That’s a true gift of love,” said the DAP man.
