‘Underdog’ label, but Streram expects to grab 60-70% of the vote

Dr S Streram with PKR divisional leaders in Kampung Felda Sendayan.

SEREMBAN: Despite being labelled the underdog, Pakatan Harapan’s Dr S Streram expects 60-70% of the votes in the state seat to go to him in the Rantau by-election.

Speaking to reporters at Kampung Felda Sendayan here, Streram, an anaesthetist by profession, said he is also confident of convincing the Malays to vote for him because of his past work as a doctor.

“When I became a doctor, I never decided to treat a person based on their race. Whether it was a Malay, Chinese or Indian, I treated everyone equally.

“As such, I’m confident of support from the Malay voters.”

He said this had been his “strategy” for over three decades now and he had many friends of all races.

Asked about his specific strategies in beating Rantau incumbent Mohamad Hasan, from Umno, Streram said he would only reveal this tomorrow when he launches his own manifesto.

“I knock on people’s doors and they say they’ve accepted me as their representative for the Rantau seat.

“So, for now, there’s no particular strategy, but we’ve already lined up a final strategy,” he said, adding this will be revealed later.

Streram spoke in both Malay and English, at times struggling to come up with answers in Malay when asked a question in Malay.

Before he answered questions, several PH leaders were seen whispering answers to him. Sometimes, Streram repeated exactly what was relayed to him.

Only a few times did he respond promptly in own words, without needing to be prompted by his supporters.

Present at the press conference was Rembau PKR chief R Tanggam, who had sparred in public with Streram over who the party’s candidate should be.

“Although Dr Streram won the deputy post in the division in the recent party polls, he is not a local and this may jeopardise our chances of winning,” he had said last year.

Tanggam and Streram were in rival teams during last month’s party polls.

He had also claimed that Streram had the least support from division members compared with four others who were proposed as the PH candidate.

However, today, Tanggam and Streram said since the party had already chosen the candidate, they have buried the hatchet and will work together to ensure PH wins the seat.

Earlier, Tanggam told reporters that the stakes are high for PKR to win the by-election as it was “all about Anwar’s and PKR’s pride”.

“If we lose, we will be in trouble.”

Besides Streram and Mohamad, two independent candidates, housewife and former radio broadcaster Malar Rajaram and former lecturer Mohd Nor Yasin are also contesting the seat.

Campaigning for the by-election will last 14 days, beginning today.

Polling will take place on April 13, with early voting on April 9.

There are 29,926 registered voters, 55% of whom are Malays, 26% Indians and 19% Chinese.

The by-election is the seventh to be held in the country since GE14, after those for the Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia, Balakong and Semenyih state seats in Selangor and the Cameron Highlands (Pahang) and Port Dickson (Negeri Sembilan) parliamentary seats. - FMT