Hee to defend Jelapang seat as BN candidate

Jelapang Independent assemblyperson Hee Yit Foong, one of three lawmakers to defect from the Pakatan Rakyat Perak government in 2009, said she will defend the seat on a BN ticket in the upcoming general election.

She told Oriental Daily Newsin an interview published yesterday that she will contest “under the BN flag” to defend the seat, which Pakatan had wrested in 2008.

Asked to elaborate what she means by “under the BN flag”, Hee said she would let Prime Minister and BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak announce the details.

She also claimed that MCA will not field a candidate “in the BN spirit”, but said this arrangement may be changed at the last minute.

Hee, a DAP member prior to her defection, had defeated the MCA and Parti Sosialis Malaysia candidates in the 2008 general election by 6,707 votes.

Asked about the possibility that she would be requested to make way for BN candidates, she replied: “We will think about it.”

Hee quit DAP on Feb 4, 2009 and switched her support to BN along with PKR assemblypersons Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang) and Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering).

Bota representative Nasarudin Hashim, who had defected to Pakatan, reversed his decision and returned to Umno.

These developments led to a change in the state government, with BN holding 31 seats to Pakatan's 28.

‘Voters support me’

Hee, asked about voters’ reaction after the change in state government, claimed that many have welcomed her decision to defend the seat.

The two-term lawmaker said some voters even told her in the Hakka dialect, “Dato (Hee), your service is no worse than theirs (DAP). If you contest again, they might not win!”

She also said some voters had lambasted her after the downfall of the Pakatan state government but that several who once bought newspaper advertisements to renounce support for her had later - to her surprise - apologised.

Hee added that BN component parties have provided her assistance in serving the constituency, making her job as an assemblyperson more effective than when she was in the DAP.