Chinese votes critical in Perak: Nga

Perak DAP secretary Nga Kor Ming said there are about 38% of Malays in the state who will support Pakatan Rakyat, and the percentage could improve to 45% in the best case scenario.

He added, if 70-80% of Chinese voters (38% of Perak voters are Chinese) go for Pakatan, Pakatan not only could recapture Perak, it could also take 38 of the 40 state assembly seats, more than two thirds majority to from a strong government.

He said no matter how powerful Umno is, it wouldn't be able to eat into the fundamental support for PAS, while about 15% of middle voters are still being wooed by both camps.

Given the comparable strength of Malay support for BN and Pakatan, Chinese voters will play a very critical role in determining the final outcome of the election.

"Do it right now!"

Nag told Sin Chew Daily GE13 delivers a very important message: Not only Malay voters desire for change, Chinese voters must also grab this unique opportunity and not to give up the power in their hands.

Of all the 222 parliamentary seats up for grabs in the country, about two thirds are mixed constituencies. Chinese make up about 30% or 3.49 million of all the 13 million registered votes in the country. Without the slightest doubt, Chinese voters will be the eventual kingmakers of the coming election.

"If the Chinese community wants to change the destiny of this country, they must do it right now while we still have the critical mass. Chinese voters will not have the numbers to bring about any change ten years down the road."

MCA has tried to misguide the Chinese community that Malay and Indian votes are now returning to BN, and it will therefore be useless for Chinese to vote against BN, as this will only result in Chinese being sidelined in the government.

However Nga said, more and more Malays have come to the support of Pakatan Rakyat over the past five years, and the issue of Malay votes draining away is non-existent.

He said Malay voters are no longer fearful of DAP, this coupled with the welfare state championed by PAS and the generally positive feedback for the performance of former MB Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin, Chinese voters in the state will throw their full support behind Pakatan's Malay candidates just as Malay voters continue to support DAP.

"Over the past five years, we have organised talks in 817 Malay kampung all across the state, and the response we get has been overwhelming."

He cited the example of his ceramah in a village in Kamunting in 2008 which was attended by approximately 400 people, but Pakatan's ceramah at the same location last month drew six to seven thousand people.

Nga said many people misunderstand that Chinese voters can only play major role in Chinese-majority constituencies, whereas in fact Chinese votes are critical in every constituency in Perak.

"In Gerik, there are only about 24% Chinese, but if 70% of them vote for us, together with 30% of Malay votes, we can easily win this Malay seat."

He said in 2008, Pakatan narrowly lost in some of the Malay-dominant constituencies, for example Selama (majority 355), Kubu Gajah (66) and Pengkalan Hulu (14).

"If Chinese voters in these constituencies go all out for Pakatan, we will win a few more seats this time."

More united than ever

After the BN takeover in 2009, the three parties making up Pakatan Rakyat have been working even more closely over the past few years to prepare ourselves for the coming general elections.

Nga said state Pakatan leaders have forged very good relationship with one another, adding that the relationship among Perak DAP chief Ngeh Koo Ham, PAS deputy chief Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin and PKR chief Mohd Nor Manuty is more like one of brothers.

He said Perak was the first state where Pakatan had completed the seat allocation procedures in a peaceful manner in the absence of conflicts.

However, Nga said he could not rule out the fact that some conservative voters in Malay villagers have been influenced by Umno, which tell them if Pakatan takes control of the country, they will lose their privileges while the post of PM will go to a Chinese.

"BN has spent millions of ringgit for their election campaigns. They even try to get gaming syndicates to influence their winning chances."

The state Pakatan council has unanimously agreed to reinstate Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin as Perak menteri besar if the state is won by Pakatan in GE13.

He said the Chinese community saw with their own eyes Nizar's performance during his 11-month tenure as MB. Nizar put the interest of the people first when planning any policy.

"Despite the pressure from Umno reps, he opened up the state fund and distributed academic rewards to people in the state irrespective of race. He also handled many land planning cases with the hope all farmers in the state could have their own lands.

"In view of his track record and care for the people in Perak, please give Nizar one more chance to be our MB."

-Sin Chew Daily