Ex-navy man challenges Linggi in Kapit

SIBU: The heat is building up in Kapit parliamentary seat when another contender has been announced to wrest the seat from the incumbent Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi in this 14th General Election.
The new challenge came from former navy man Sai Malaka, 53 whose candidacy was announced by State Reform Party (STAR) Sarawak president Lina Soo here today.
According to him, he retired from the Malaysian Navy in 2009 and was a member of People's Progressive Party while in Johor.
Sai, who hailed from Katibas, Song had held the post of president of Gagasan Dayak Iban Bersatu (GAIU) in Johor in 2012.
"I came back in 2016 and saw the need for Sarawakians to change their political mind set to achieve greater development," he said of his political aspiration.
Sai is also the elder brother of DAP's candidate for Kapit in the GE13, Ramli Malaka who was beaten by Nanta with a majority of 9,731 votes.
Star is not much of a problem for Nanta. The party has yet to get much support from Sarawakians and in fact all of Star's 11 candidates lost their deposits in the Sarawak state election in 2016.
Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen announced here on Saturday that the party would field Paren Nyawi, 37.
Paren, from Rumah Jarop in Song, has a bachelor's degree in accountancy from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Shah Alam, He was an auditor for 10 years in Kuala Lumpur before joining DAP in 2015 and quit his job to contest in the 2016 state election.
He stood against Datuk Ambrose Blikau Enturan in Katibas state constituency, only to lose to the latter by a majority of 3,053 votes.
Paren has been reported as saying it would be hard to unseat Nanta, the PBB secretary general who has been representing Kapit since winning it for the first time in 1999.
However, he would try to reduce Nanta's majority as much as possible, and that could only happen, as he said, if all of the young generation come back to vote.
Nanta secured Kapit seat in 1999 by obtaining 12,157 votes against independent candidate Richard Nujong Abit who received 1,141 votes and won unopposed in the 2004 and 2008 general elections.
After winning the 2013 general election, Nanta was appointed as Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's new cabinet.
Despite knowing that he has the upper hand, Nanta whose candidacy was announced by Sarawak BN chairman Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg in Kuching yesterday does not look down on whoever his contenders are.
During numerous occasions in Kapit and Song districts, he told his supporters that winning was not a problem.
He said the important thing to do was to gain bigger majority for BN and better still make the opposition candidates lose their deposits.
"With bigger majority, Sarawak will have a bigger voice that Putrajaya could not turn a deaf ear to its requests.
"The bigger majority will also ensure the smooth implementation of the Upper Rajang Development Agency (URDA), which will spur the development in an area as large as 38,000 square kilometres comprising Kapit, Upper Rajang, Kanowit and a part of Bintulu, Nanta added. — Bernama