KUCHING: The new State Legislative Assembly (DUN) complex should not be turned into a battleground for politicking, said former DUN Speaker Dato Sri Jacob Ridu.

He said it was his hope that the new complex, which has opened a new chapter in the development of the assembly, would continue to be the place where the voices of the masses would be heard loud and clear through their representatives.

“The building itself is just a representation of who we are but most importantly, it is our elected representa-tives who must represent the people meaningfully and use this place well, discussing the future of the state’s economy and people,” he said yesterday.

He called on opposition members to focus more on social and economic issues rather than play politics and scoring political mileage.

“That’s what parliamentarians should do,” he said when met after the opening of the new DUN.

In a separate interview, Bukit Assek assemblyman Wong Ho Leng hoped that the new DUN building could help the state to embark on a new era of democracy.

“Having a grand building is useless unless the chamber itself is equally grand. It is democracy emanating from the chamber that is important. I expect the legislative chamber to be magnanimous and every point of view must be taken.

“In another word, opposition views must be taken (into consideration) and it cannot be that if opposition members make some noise against the government or against the law they will be suspended.

“As long as the opposition members are suspended and continuously so in the future, there is no democracy in Sarawak,” he pointed out.

On whether the new building could be a state landmark, Wong said: “It is a landmark in itself. Any building costing RM300 million has to be a landmark.”