KUCHING: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) candidate for Stampin Lo Khere Chiang is keeping his cool after being given the monicker ‘Empurau King’ in a fake video clip.
An allegedly doctored video clip had gone viral on social media, purportedly showing Lo commenting on empurau (an expensive fish that takes three years to reach marketable size), insinuating that he looked down on people who couldn’t afford to eat the exotic fish.
Lo said he was not bothered by attempts to mislead the voters of Stampin constituency.
“A lot of people called me names over the years. It doesn’t bother me at all. I only do the right thing and I’m very sorry for those who take advantage and try to misquote me and paint a bad picture of me.
“I’m very sorry for them, I would like to thank our cyber ‘friends’ who try to discredit me. But, in the end, I think I have got more friends on cyber because when something is right, it is right.
“And when somebody tries to paint a wrong picture, they will have to paint another 100 pictures to cover that wrong information and it doesn’t work,” he told reporters at the unity dinner at Arang Road Basketball Court here, on Tuesday (Nov 15).
A police report was lodged over the fake video clip on Nov 14.
Lo, who is also the Batu Kitang assemblyman, advised cyber troopers, especially the young ones, to be careful and adopt the right path.
“Follow the right boss, don’t follow the wrong boss, follow the right boss and you will go far, follow the wrong boss and you end up in jail,” he said.
On his chances of wresting Stampin from the opposition, Lo said this time the seat would belong to GPS.
“This is the first time we are going to take Stampin. We have lost Stampin to Democratic Action Party (DAP) for three terms. So, this is the first time we are going to take it back.
“Therefore, I cannot tell you how many votes we are going to garner, but I can tell you we are going to take it this time,” he said.
He also said only GPS would be able to deliver its promises as the coalition emphasised the ‘Sarawak First’ slogan.
“Malayan parties will only take care of their interests, and therefore, if you vote DAP, you are voting for a Malayan party. And Malayans will only ‘gabung’ (join forces) with Malayan parties.
“And we don’t know who is going to ‘gabung’ with who after this election because politics in Malaya is in a mess,” he said.
He stressed that GPS was the only party that Sarawakians should vote for to represent Sarawak’s interests to protect the state, to protect Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, and to get back all its rights, wealth and autonomy.
On his priority tasks if he won the seat, Lo said he would fight to get as much funds from the federal government to develop Stampin.
“I will also make sure that we will protect Sarawak’s rights under MA63, put Sarawak first all the time and take back the autonomy that DAP only pledged but was unable to deliver to Sarawak.
“I will go and fight for this, I will pursue where DAP has failed,” he said.
