THE Pahang government under the BN leadership finds it hard to help voters in the Cameron Highlands parliamentary constituency because it owes debts amounting to RM3.1 billion to the federal government, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said.

Lim said the voters in the constituency, especially the Orang Asli, had to give their confidence and mandate to the Pakatan Harapan candidate, M. Manogaran, at the by-election on January 26.

He said that only the federal government under Pakatan Harapan would be able to safeguard the welfare of the people and to provide continuous development in the area, he said to a gathering that was attended by PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, Pahang PKR chairman Fuziah Salleh, Senator Bob Manolan Mohamad and Manogaran.

“It’s okay, we can work with the state government if Pakatan wins in Cameron Highlands. We can work together with Pahang menteri besar (Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail) to build Cameron Highlands (Parliament),” he said.

Meanwhile, Lim told the Orang Asli community not to believe claims that the government would stop the allowances and other facilities in the future as alleged by the opposition.

The area has 32,048 voters or 22% of the Orang Asli community, Malays (34%) Chinese (30%) and Indians (14%).

The by-election is a four-cornered contest involving Pakatan Harapan candidate Manogaran, BN candidate Ramli Mohd Nor, and two independent candidates, Sallehudin Ab Talib and Wong Seng Yee. – Bernama, January 18, 2019.