Noh says urban voters ungrateful

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

April 22, 2011

The Selangor Umno deputy chief cited farmers and fishermen as key BN voters in the rural electorate. — file pic

SERDANG, April 22 — Datuk Seri Noh Omar said today that rural voters are more grateful compared to urban residents for initiatives implemented by Barisan Nasional (BN), citing the recent Sarawak state polls as an example.

The Selangor Umno deputy chief said the Sarawak elections prove that the rural electorate still remains an important vote bank for BN.

“The majority of seats won in Sarawak, as well as in previous elections, by Barisan Nasional is from the rural areas. This proves that the farming and fishing communities is a group of people that continues to give their support to the Barisan Nasional government.

“They are also a group that is appreciative of and grateful for government efforts in elevating the plight of farmers and fishermen,” he said when addressing the Assembly of Farmers, Breeders and Fishermen here.

BN won 55 out of the 71 seats in the Sarawak assembly, a drop from the 63 it held when the assembly was dissolved last month. The DAP doubled its presence to 12 seats while PKR tripled its representation to three despite contesting 49 seats. An independent also took a seat.

In Election 2008, PR won a total of 82 out of 222 federal seats, with the DAP winning 28 seats, mainly in urban areas where there are large communities of Chinese, who decided to throw out BN’s lawmakers in favour of the opposition party’s representatives.

Utusan Malaysia has urged Umno to spearhead a 1Melayu, 1Bumi movement to unite all Malay parties, claiming that the DAP was intent on toppling the country’s Malay leadership.

In his Cuit column, assistant chief editor Datuk Zaini Hassan wrote that the recent Sarawak state polls showed that the DAP had succeeded in uniting the Chinese, who are now gunning for political power despite controlling everything else.