DAP gaining ground in Teluk Intan?
DAP must not be over-confident that the Chinese will overwhelmingly support them.
COMMENT
It is still too difficult to predict who will win the Teluk Intan by-election. No doubt there will be many undecided voters at this halfway point as polling is next week on Saturday, May 31. Therefore this race to the finish will surely go down the wire.
(This columnist will be going to ground zero to evaluate the situation this weekend.)
Below are excerpts from voters’ comments taken from this columnist’s friends who are on duty in Teluk Intan.
Pro-Gerakan (Mah Siew Keong) voters: “Let us give Mah a chance to bring some development to Teluk Intan. We must vote Mah so that he will not lose face because after all he is a local boy. Mah can do a lot for Teluk Intan because he will have funds from the federal government. There will also be good co-operation between Mah and the BN Perak state government”.
Pro-DAP (Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud) voters: “It is time we vote for a fresh face. Let us see what Dyana can do for Teluk Intan. We should leave old politics behind. We must vote for young candidates who are future leaders of the nation.”
According to this columnist’s friends, the increasing cost of living is the hot topic of the day.
The people of Teluk Intan do not rate national issues such as corruption in management that high on their list compared to the urban folks. Daily issues such as price hikes, jobs and bread and butter issues are more important.
One has to remember that Teluk Intan is a semi-rural/rural seat so the people here will only pay attention to issues that impact directly upon their daily lives.
A few voters are saying whoever wins in Teluk Intan will not change the status quo and therefore they may not vote after all. They give the excuse that Mah while being an experienced politician is a recycled candidate while Dyana Sofya is too young and inexperienced in politics.
Crowds at ceramah do not necessarily translate into votes so it is difficult to gauge how a candidate will fare on polling day based on the numbers of the ceramah crowds.
Voters’ strategy
Former Teluk Intan DAP MP M Manogaran who has been working very hard to meet the voters has informed this columnist that DAP is gaining ground in the Chinese and Indian areas due to what happened in the Penang State Legislative Assembly and DAP HQ in KL recently wherein hooliganism was displayed by certain irresponsible quarters.
However, PAS Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad has this to say: “Malangnya ada beberapa ahli PAS yang terkedu apabila Dyana tolak hudud. Namun demikian, saya rasa kita boleh menang tetapi mesti kerja keras. Bukan mustahil tetapi kena kerja keras.”
Still, PAS Deputy President Mohamad Sabu has assured this columnist that PAS respects Dyana’s stand. His PAS colleague, election director and Kuala Krai MP, Hatta Ramli opined that it is a very tough battle.
A few elderly Chinese voters told this columnist’s PKR friend that “we will vote Mah so that he can bring some development to Teluk Intan. Let him do some work first. In the next general election, we will vote DAP again. This is a good strategy for us voters.”
Although this may sound weird to some, the Chinese voters in two previous by-elections (Sungai Limau in November last year and Kajang in March this year) had moved slightly towards BN so it will not be surprising if DAP is unable to obtain 85% Chinese support as what happened in last year’s GE13.
Therefore DAP must not be over-confident that the Chinese will overwhelmingly support them.
It is high time to expand the voter base and that is the reason why DAP has fielded a Malay candidate – to show that DAP is a party that is fair to all.
Hopefully the Malay voters will see that DAP is a good and credible party and not a Chinese-chauvinist party as labelled by its opponents and detractors.
It is going to be a neck-and-neck battle. At the beginning of the campaign, DAP was trailing Gerakan but right now DAP has closed the gap.
Nevertheless, a win is a win regardless of the margin. However if DAP wins by less than a thousand votes, then it is a signal that Pakatan’s popularity has dipped.
It is then time for DAP and Pakatan Rakyat to re-evaluate their strategy before GE14. Fortunately Pakatan has time on their side.
Selena Tay is a DAP member and an FMT columnist
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