Mah could have brought progress long ago, DON'T CHEAT Teluk Intan now

Firstly, I would like to congratulate Dyana Sofya for putting up an admirable fight in the Teluk Intan by-election although I am also truly disappointed that she did not succeed in becoming the new Member of Parliament for Teluk Intan. Should she have won, it would have been another victory for women.

Although Mah Siew Keong had triumphed in the by-election, he only managed to increase the votes for BN by 71 – this is nothing to be proud of especially when he had been the former MP for Teluk Intan. During his tenure back then, how much change did he bring to the people of Teluk Intan?

Mah’s victory relied mainly on the postal votes and this is also something that could have been due to Zahid’s warning that the government knows who is voting for whom. The 238 postal votes and the total votes that do not tally raises question to whether Mah’s win is actually tenable.

Nevertheless, the voters have made their choice and a clever one too, considering all the goodies and development that has been promised during the by-election. Now that the by-election is over, it is time to deliver on those promises. Of course, if Mah had wanted to deliver development to Teluk Intan, he would have done so previously when he was the MP there. Now, we just have to wait to see if it will materialise or whether it becomes just another empty promise.

My message to Mah is this: Please do not cheat the people of Teluk Intan. Do your job and deliver on your promises or else the people will know what to do in the next general election. Now that you will be a Minister, make sure you put the people’s interest first and do not be a puppet to your UMNO master.

As for Dyana, this is only the beginning not the end. Mah will most likely be only a ‘transit MP’ until GE-14.

Zuraida Kamaruddin is the MP for Ampang