PAKATAN OR BN? TEACH MAHATHIR A LESSON OR GIVE THE MIDDLE FINGER TO MCA?

PONTIAN: Chinese voters, who form almost half of the electorate casting their ballots in the Nov 16 Tanjung Piai by-election, appear split on who to support for the first time in over a decade.

If in the past, it was a forgone conclusion that the bulk of Chinese voters would shun any candidate representing Barisan Nasional (BN), a random poll now shows that many are throwing their support behind MCA’s Wee Jeck Seng, the BN candidate who once represented the federal constituency.

Wee lost by just 524 votes in the last general election to the late Md Farid Md Rafik from PPBM.

The Chinese comprise about 42% of Tanjung Piai’s 53,528 voters while the Malays form the majority with just under 60%.

Tan Jun Lim, who lives in Pekan Nenas, a town in Pontian with a population of about 10,000, predicts that 50% of Chinese votes could swing to BN’s favour.

Tan, 62, said there is growing anger within the community against the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government over several issues.

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These include the decision to introduce the learning of Jawi for primary school pupils in vernacular schools and the government’s failure to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate.

“These could result in protest votes,” he told FMT when met at the Pekan Nenas market.

Tan Jun Lim

For Tan, neither BN nor PH are “good”. He is strongly opposed to former prime minister Najib Razak but says he does not dislike Wee, a former assemblyman for the Pekan Nenas state constituency who was Tanjung Piai MP for two terms.

According to him, though, the Chinese in the constituency are reluctant to back BN due to Umno’s recent alliance with PAS.

Cheong Pick Lai.

Cheong Pick Lai, 52, knows Wee and two other candidates: PH’s Karmaine Sardini and Gerakan’s Wendy Subramaniam. However, she is still undecided on who to vote for.

The one thing she does know is that her ballot will not be influenced by race or even political loyalty.

“We want to see their work,” she told FMT. “I don’t care about their race or which party they are from.”

Another resident said he would vote for a Malay as long as the candidate has a multiracial outlook.

Goh.

The registered voter, who wanted to be known only as Goh, said many decisions of the present government were ill-considered.

“The government’s decisions seem to have been made without consultation and on the spur of the moment,” he said.

But Goh, 60, says he has been keeping up with social media on the by-election campaign and already knows his choice of candidate.

He said the people in Tanjung Piai want a visionary leader. He added that PH’s strategy of announcing allocations for the constituency shows that nothing has changed.

“The previous administration was the same,” he said.

The Tanjung Piai contest will see a six-way fight between candidates from BN, PH and Gerakan as well as Berjasa’s Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz and independents Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abdul Ghaffar.

– Free Malaysia Today