Dr M: Don't shoot yourselves in the foot by voting out of anger

TG PIAI POLLS | Don't shoot yourselves in the foot. This was Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad's message to voters in Tanjung Piai last night.

"If we reject the candidate who can serve us, because of anger or other reasons, we will be the ones at a loss.

"In English, they say don't shoot yourself in the foot. If we do so, who knows what will happen," the prime minister said at a ceramah in Kukup, Tanjung Piai.

Harapan is facing an uphill battle to retain Tanjung Piai. Voters Malaysiakini spoke to, particularly the Chinese, have indicated that they are considering protest votes to punish the government for not fulfilling its promises, among other reasons.

There is also a great possibility that many outstation voters would not return to vote on polling day, this Saturday.

Mahathir said if the opposition is elected, it would only benefit them and not the people.

"It's not them who would be at a loss, they become a YB and get money. We vote, they get money, but what do we get? Certainly not development," he said.

Some 2,500 people turned up for the Harapan ceramah, the biggest turnout yet for the party’s campaign events. More than half of those present were in party colours.

Mahathir claimed that the turnout was about 8,000 people.

When he started speaking, about a third of the crowd - Malays and Chinese - began to leave. Those Malaysiakini spoke to said they just wanted to avoid a traffic jam after the ceramah ended.

The road leading to the ceramah venue is a single lane road.

Besides Mahathir, other speakers included Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng (photo), Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution.

In his speech earlier, Lim said the voters would only punish themselves if they went against Harapan out of frustration.

"If we fail to fulfil our promises in three-and-a-half years, it won't be too late to punish us then.

"But why vent your frustrations based on opposition slander? Three-and-a-half years. Surely you would not deny this opportunity to yourselves?

"You will not be punishing Harapan, but yourselves," Lim said.

Harapan's candidate for Tanjung Piai, Karmaine Sardini, said that voters should not put too much thought into who to vote for, and that it would be in their interest to elect him.

This is so that they would not have to go through the same ordeal as their neighbours in the Pontian constituency.

"There are no allocations in Pontian. Friends there complain that there are no projects.

"This is what happened because they didn't elect me. Now, it is their loss. If they had elected me, maybe Pontian would get RM14 million too," Karmaine said - referring to the allocation secured for Tanjung Piai by the late MP for the seat, Dr Md Farid Md Rafik.

Karmaine lost to the BN's Ahmad Maslan in Pontian by 833 votes in last year's 14th general election.

The Harapan candidate said that if he had won, all the allocations he received would be for the constituents, regardless of their race. - Mkini