BN does number on estate workers… again’

By B Nantha Kumar and G Vinod, Free Malaysia Today

LUKUT: Workers at Siliau Estate, near here, are angry with the Barisan Nasional for being fork-tongued in its pledges. During the Bagan Pinang by-election last year, the BN government had promised to build as many as 150 low-cost houses under its Hardcore Poor Development Project (PPRT). The houses were to be sold to the estate workers.
But less than a year later, BN went back on its word saying that it had never promised to sell them the PPRT houses but merely pledged to rent them to the workers.

During a recent visit to the estate, FMT discovered that few, if any, knew that the PPRT houses were not for sale.

Said K Chandra, 42, a palm oil harvester: “I don’t know anything about this. They did not tell us that the houses were for us to rent. They told us we could buy them.”

Chandran, however, did not seem surprised at BN’s about-turn on the election promise.

“I am not shocked or upset. We all heard BN promise to sell us the houses. If it does not fulfil its promise, our votes won’t go to BN anymore,” he said.

He said there were now 30 families in the estate. The rest had left and were working outside.

“But we are still close and keep in touch with each another. So it’s not easy to break the Siliau estate population for political purposes,” he smiles.

He also said the estate people were not staunch BN supporters and had only given BN a chance in the by-election to see if it would keep its promises.

“If BN fails to fulfil its promise, more than 400 voters will turn to Pakatan Rakyat,” he said, adding that most of the estate workers had sent their applications and documents to buy the PPRT houses by the end of this February.