MERLIMAU: The Chinese of Merlimau have no fear of Islam coming to town should PAS win this by-election. But according to MCA, that isn’t enough to swing the votes in the opposition’s favour come March 6.
The Chinese constitute 20.84% of voters in Merlimau and both MCA and DAP have been pulling out the stops to woo them over to their respective sides.
MCA has set up base in the predominantly Chinese residential area of Pengkalan Samak – a stone’s throw from the old Chinese part of Merlimau town where DAP has opened its operations room.
While the former is confident that the Chinese votes are safe in its bag, the latter is equally sure of securing a larger majority of Chinese votes than in 2008. But when it comes to reading the vibe in the Chinese community, both sides are on glaringly different pages.
“The Chinese here are not enjoying financial support from the government in terms of education,” Ayer Keroh assemblyman Khoo Phoay Tiong told FMT. “The recently completed Sekolah Menengah Cina Merlimau was built with funds collected from the Chinese community.”
“When Deputy Prime Minister (Muhyddin Yassin) visited earlier this week, the school asked for RM3.5 million to improve the school facilities, but he told them to wait until after the by-election. Why must they wait until the election is over? Aren’t they entitled to state allocation? This is BN’s way of arm-twisting them into voting for it.”
Khoo noted that despite Merlimau being a BN stronghold, the opposition had been enjoying better response from the Chinese recently. But he added that the numbers are still a far cry from PAS’ “very high target”.
Gradual takeover
The perceived rising support has also boosted hopes of a stronger opposition presence in Malacca in the near future.
“We hope that Pakatan’s gradual takeover of Malacca will start from Merlimau,” he said. “That this seat will be the platform towards a Pakatan-led state government in Malacca.”
MCA state chief Gan Tian Loo, on the other hand, waved off this perception, saying that the Chinese votes still belonged with BN.
“The Chinese are satisfied with the government,” he said. “We’ve been speaking to different groups every day and we haven’t found any serious issues affecting the community.”
“In fact, they are happy with the Government Transformation Plan (GTP), the National Key Results Areas (NKRA) and the 1Malaysia concept. Their support remains very much with us.”
MCA won 40% of the Chinese votes in 2008 and aims to wrest another 10% in this by-election.
“Our candidate (Roslan Ahmad) is a familiar face here,” he pointed out. “And the Chinese are happy with the services of the late BN assemblyman (Mohd Hidhir Abu Hassan). Both these factors will go a long way in helping us reach our targeted number of votes.” - FMT
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