ARAU - The Barisan Nasional candidate for Arau Parliament Datuk Rozabil Abdul Rahman does not want to rush to issue a manifesto of 'self-praise' which is not beneficial to the residents of the area.
Rozabil, or better known as Tok Ben, claimed that the goal of the 15th General Election (GE15) campaign in the first week was to hear the grievances of people from all walks of life in the Arau Parliament area.
"Regarding the manifesto, I will announce it next week. For now, I need to focus on listening to the problems dealt by the people in this area of the Arau Parliament, who are mostly farmers.
"I don't want to issue a 'self-praise' manifesto that has absolutely nothing to do with the residents of the Arau Parliament," he said after reviewing farmers' complaints regarding water drainage problems in Kampung Ceh Ok, Tambun Tulang on Tuesday
Rozabil stated that in a related development, his priority right now was to assist to resolve the issues raised as soon as possible.
For farmers, he would meet with the Muda Agricultural Development Authority (Mada).
"When I hear their problems like this farmer, I have to solve them. If the problem is not solved, they will find me again.
"Elected or not (as the representative of people) is an irrelevant point, it's a different issue.
"This is about the income of the farmers because as a businessman, I have to make money and when faced with a problem it has to be solved because that is my source of income. Likewise, with farmers, this problem involves their source of income.
"That's what I'm trying to do, but sometimes it takes time to complete it because it involves various agencies, requiring a letter of support to get approval but I will do a follow up to resolve this matter," he said.
Meanwhile, farmer Asri Md Isa, 57, hopes that the problem of stagnant water in the paddy fields every time the rice sowing season in Kampung Ceh Ok could be solved soon.
"This is not a new problem, for more than 10 years we (farmers) have had to deal with the issue of stagnant water in the paddy fields every season of sowing rice seeds.
"We hope that Mada will be able to carry out river cleaning work during the dry season so that the irrigation system can be repaired as best as possible and the problem of stagnant water in the enclosure will not reoccur," he said.