KL seats: BN confident, Pakatan optimistic

While Barisan Nasional says it can win at least five seats, Pakatan is equally confident of retaining its 10 seats despite its opponent's dirty tricks.

COMMENT

KUALA LUMPUR: The coming general election may see some big Pakatan Rakyat incumbents in Kuala Lumpur being kicked out by a group of young and hardworking Barisan Nasional candidates, claimed a confident BN leader today.

In fact, the leader said, the federal coalition which was still smarting from a bruising defeat in the federal capital in 2008, was aiming to win at least five parliamentary seats here.

PPP information chief and BN FT vice-chairman A Chandrakumanan told FMT that BN had learnt its lesson from the bitter 2008 general election defeat and was now working very hard on the ground to regain its lost support and seats.

“Some of the parliamentary seats in Kuala Lumpur had been with the opposition MPs for too long and the people understand that they do not benefit anything from these MPs despite voting for them faithfully all these years.

“If we take the political scenario today in Kuala Lumpur, I have a good feeling that BN will win more than five seats,” he said.

In the 2008 election, Pakatan made a historic sweep of 10 seats. BN only retained Labuan and Putrajaya federal territories.

BN now feels it has done enough to win Lembah Pantai, Titiwangsa, Wangsa Maju, Bandar Tun Razak and Segambut. It is also confident of causing a major dent in Batu and Kepong.

Chandrakumanan said that the Pakatan MPs were more interested in hogging national-level publicity and had failed to address issues affecting their constituencies.

“You become an MP to take up people’s issues, not only to champion national issues. You need to solve people’s problems sincerely, not just become an MP for name sake and leave the problems hanging and blame the federal government.

“This is what the Pakatan MPs have been doing all this while. This is a fact. If there is anything constructive that they have done in Kuala Lumpur for the people, please highlight them. We too want to know. Let the people judge this,” he said.

“They only know how to complain, give excuses and blame BN for every policy that is carried out,” he added.

He also said that some of the veteran Pakatan MPs were living on their party’s reputation to win repeatedly. He blamed these MPs’ politicking abilities to keep the voters in their side despite developments being made by the federal government.

He also said that some of the Pakatan MPs were too busy with their other duties that they failed to serve their constituents. He specifically mentioned Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and his failure to serve his Bandar Tun Razak constituency. Chandrakumanan is believed to be eyeing the Bandar Tun Razak seat in the next general election.

“The voters in Bandar Tun Razak are fed up with what is happening because their MP disappeared after making lucrative promises during election,” he said.

BN’s dirty campaign

Pakatan representatives, however, denied that they were not doing anything for their constituents, and blamed BN for playing dirty to win in the next polls.

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, who is also PKR’s vice-president, said that Pakatan MPs were doing their best to serve their voters despite being denied development allocations by the federal government.

“Millions of ringgit from the federal government for the constituencies are by-passing us, being channelled through BN. Despite this, we are doing our best,” she told FMT when contacted.

She added that the flow of money was among the reasons for BN leaders to be confident of winning back some of the seats currently held by Pakatan.

“BN-appointed representatives in KL are also using government agencies and money, and reaping rewards via lucrative negotiated tenders,” she said.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng, meanwhile, said that BN was resorting to dirty tricks such as introducing dubious voters in its attempt to win in the next general election.

He said that a large number of new and old dubious voters are present in the electoral roll for Kuala Lumpur.

“Despite this, Pakatan in Kuala Lumpur will still keep the 10 seats in the coming election, albeit marginally,” he told FMT.

“This is because Pakatan has been constantly registering new voters to counter the number of doubtful voters. Furthermore, urban voters are more politically exposed to rural voters,” he added.

He also said that the KL voters’ rage against the establishment has reached a boiling point, especially due to the increase in crime in the city.

“City dwellers are also disgusted to have witnessed how the authority handled the two Bersih rallies which took place in the city.”

With all these, the voters in Kuala Lumpur will vote against BN in the coming general election because they want a change in the way Malaysia is run,” he said.