{"id":4804,"date":"2011-02-25T05:16:38","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T21:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buletinonline.net\/v7\/index.php\/2011\/02\/folk-focus-on-bread-and-butter-issues\/"},"modified":"2011-02-25T05:16:38","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T21:16:38","slug":"folk-focus-on-bread-and-butter-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/folk-focus-on-bread-and-butter-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Folk focus on bread-and-butter issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/buletinonline.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_0763.JPG\" border=\"0\" alt=\"http:\/\/www.buletinonline.net\/http:\/\/buletinonline.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_0763.JPG\" style=\"float: left;\" \/>Bread-and-butter issues take precedence over everything else for the  people of Kerdau near here and they plan to use their vote to change  things for the better.<\/p>\n<p>Most of them said they did not care about  national issues or events in Putrajaya as they were too preoccupied with  their own problems.<\/p>\n<p>Roslan Saman, 25, said he did not doubt that  Barisan Nasional would retain the Kerdau seat in the by-election but  would not be surprised if its majority was significantly reduced.<\/p>\n<p>Unless  the Government is able to convince the people that it would seriously  look into their economic and land problems, he said many youths might  show their unhappiness through the ballot box.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people here do not support the opposition. PAS does not have much of a presence in Kerdau and its surrounding areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut some people may just \u2018cross the moon\u2019 as a show of protest,\u201d Roslan said.<\/p>\n<p>Kampung  Pasir village head Mandi Baharin Ismail, 55, said the authorities\u2019  failure to grant the people land titles within the vicinity was like a  thorn in the flesh for the younger generation.<\/p>\n<p>Shamsul Bahri  Abdul Manan, 43, said another contentious issue in the area was water.  \u201cWe live close to the majestic Pahang river. In fact, the Batu Kawar  water treatment plant is less than 10km from our village, yet our taps  are dry most of the time. Sometimes, we live without tap water for up to  a month,\u201d he said, adding that water supply had just been restored to  the village.<\/p>\n<p>Similar grouses were expressed by the Chinese community in the Old Kerdau town centre (picture).<\/p>\n<p>A grocery shop owner who wanted to be known only as Tan wished the area was more developed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI  have lived here for over 50 years but everything still looks the same,\u201d  he said, adding that the younger generation had moved away due to lack  of economic opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>He complained that small businesses such as his had no room to expand because it was difficult to apply for a permit.<\/p>\n<p>Ng Chin Choy, 71, concurred, saying the new state assemblyman should do more to improve their standard of living.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring Chinese New Year, we were without water supply for four days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bread-and-butter issues take precedence over everything else for the people of Kerdau near here and they plan to use their vote to change things for the better. Most of them said they did not care about national issues or events in Putrajaya as they were too preoccupied with their own problems. Roslan Saman, 25, said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}