SANDAKAN: Business was slow at the famous Pasar Sim-Sim here, this morning, as Sandakan by-election candidate Chia Siew Yung made his rounds with a handful of supporters.
Wearing a black T-shirt with Chia’s face printed on it, loyal followers greeted local stall owners and distributed campaign badges while urging them to support “kunci” – the symbol under which Chia is contesting.
Situated in Kampung Buli Sim-Sim, the market is well known for its delicious grilled seafood delicacies. It is suffice to say a visit to Sandakan is not complete without a meal there.
At 10.30am, stall owners had put up a variety of freshly grilled fish, prawn, squid and chicken thighs.
However, there was not a single customer to be seen when Chia and his team arrived on their walkabout campaign.
“By right, this market should be busy from morning to night. It is a tourist spot but you can see that business is slow. It will only start to pick up in the afternoon,” the 46-year-old independent hopeful told the New Straits Times.
Noting that Kampung Buli Sim-Sim has the potential to become a street food attraction for tourists, Chia, who was an oil palm executive with mechanical engineering background, said the residents needed guidance to promote the area.
He said tourism was the way forward to raise the people’s economy, while stressing Sandakan constituents need to be creative and innovative in order to improve their livelihoods.
“We need to bring up the local food, for example, so tourists and visitors alike can come (to Kampung Buli Sim-Sim) and buy from the villagers. This is one of the areas that I encourage the people to explore.
“I am trained as a corporate person and that’s why my focus is business. Sandakan’s economy is down because there is no (business) population. It is useless to have development of commercial buildings if there is no business coming in.
“When I go on my rounds, I listen to people’s plight. I tell them they cannot depend on the government and that they need to do something. This is where I play my role, to help think of a solution and connect with like-minded corporate people,” he said.
Chia claimed that the people were already fed up of listening to past issues, namely the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal, brought up by the Pakatan Harapan government, and instead wanted the government to really listen to their needs.
He said he believed he could represent the people’s voice better in Parliament, noting he has positive support from the business community and NGOs, of whom he claimed to have six backing him and financing his campaign materials.
He also expressed confidence in obtaining more than 1,000 votes from NGO supporters who are voters in the Sandakan constituency.
The Sandakan parliament seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent Datuk Stephen Wong, who was Sabah DAP chairman and state Health and People’s Well-being Minister.
The by-election will see a five-cornered fighter featuring Wong’s youngest daughter Vivian Wong Shir Yee of DAP, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) vice-president Datuk Linda Tsen Thau Lin, Chia and two other independent candidates, former Sabah Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) chairman Hamzah Abdullah and former administrative assistant at the DAP Sandakan Parliamentary Service Centre Sulaiman Abdul Samat.
Based on the 2018 Voter’s Registry, there are 39,856 ordinary voters, 270 early voters and five absent voters in Sandakan.
They are evenly split between Chinese voters (51 per cent) and Muslim Bumiputra (45 per cent), with the remainder being Kadazandusun and others.