He
claims that he himself was surprised.
He
said he was speechless when he learned that he was to be the rural development
minister for the state. The most he expected, he added, was to be appointed an
assistant minister.
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| YB Ewon Benedick - ADUN N7 KADAMAIAN Menteri Pembangunan Luar Bandar |
Benedick
turns 35 this August. He was a first-time candidate when he won the Kadamaian
state seat for Barisan Nasional in the recent election. But his party has since
ditched the coalition to join forces with Parti Warisan Sabah and Pakatan
Harapan.
He
said all elected representatives from the Warisan-PH-Upko alliance were invited
to attend the oath-taking ceremony, but none was told if he or she had been
appointed to the state cabinet.
“Nobody
knew until the last minute, when we took the oath,” he said.
“So
I was nervous when I was told to sit in the front row. And then I was invited
to receive the letter of appointment. I turned it over and it was only then
that I saw I had been appointed rural development minister. “I’m excited but still nervous. There was some talk that I would be appointed
maybe as the youth and sports assistant minister. In my mind, that would be
okay because I could learn.
“But
I feel proud because members of the younger generation have been given a chance
to serve at the ministerial level.”
Another
young man in the cabinet is Warisan vice president Junz Wong, 38. He is the
agriculture and food industry minister.
Benedick
said he would attend a briefing given by his ministry’s officers this Monday so
that he could get “the big picture of what needs to be done”.
He
has two assistant ministers, and they are Warisan members Rasinin Koutis, who
won the Liawan seat, and Dumi Pengiran Masdal, who won Lahad Datu.
He
said he planned to institutionalise the village development and security
committee (JKKK) system into “a sort of village cabinet”, claiming that it’s
current operations were too ad hoc and project oriented.
Enhanching
the system would, among other things, make data collection more effective, he
added.
“I
want the JKKK to record things like new births and deaths, the number of
primary and secondary school students, whether there are graduates in the
village, if they are on scholarships and, if so, what kind – all these and many
more.
“We
need to build this inventory so the JKKK chairmen will know who live in their
villages. Doing this can help us track the movements of villagers and also
possibly illegal immigrants.”
Benedick
was one of the Upko assemblymen who claimed that they were held against their
will at the chief minister’s official residence after it became known that they
supported Upko’s intention to quit BN.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2018/05/21/youthful-sabah-minister-nervous-but-set-to-work/
