KUALA LUMPUR: Chew Mei Fun, the BN candidate for the Kajang by-election, is making a dent into the Pakatan Rakyat vote bank while enjoying solid backing from women voters, claimed MCA president Liow Tiong Lai.
Liow, in an exclusive interview with FMT today, claimed that many Kajang voters who were upset with the contentious nature of this by-election and are turning their backs on Pakatan Rakyat.
“When we went from house to house, many people came forward and said they voted for Pakatan last time, but they would vote for us now.
“The women votes were also very encouraging. Without us asking, they said they would definitely vote for Chew,” he said from his office at Wisma MCA.
Liow declined to rate BN’s chances of winning the by-election, but said he is confident of a swing to BN although the battle is against PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.
He criticised Anwar for deliberately creating the by-election to fulfill his ambition to become the Selangor MB, and urged Kajang voters to save the state from Anwar whom he labelled as insincere.
‘Reject Anwar, save Selangor’
Anwar’s wife, PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail vacated her Permatang Pauh seat in 2008 for Anwar to return to parliament, while former Kajang assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh said last month that he resigned to allow Anwar to contest and become the Selangor Menteri Besar.
“The Kajang people have to be wise, it’s time to set a higher standard of democracy. Reject Anwar, save Selangor. Selangor cannot be under this person’s hand,” said Liow.
He claimed that Anwar was trying to play politics in the water deal signed between the Federal and Selangor state government last week, despite water being a basic necessity to the people.
“If given a chance, he will turn everything into a political issue. Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim quickly signed it without Anwar interference. I hope Anwar does not meddle too much. Whenever he meddles, Selangor will be in deep trouble,” he said.
The Bentong MP fell short of praising Khalid, but said the latter at least did less in politicking.
“Whether he runs the state well or not, we will let the people judge. But as a MB, do your work, don’t play politics,” he said.
Malays form 48% of the Kajang’s 39,728 voters, while the Chinese make up 41% and Indians 10%.
PKR’s Lee won the seat in May last year by garnering 19,571 votes against his closest rival, BN’s MCA candidate Lee Ban Seng, who obtained 12,747 votes.
Lee recently said that BN would get at least 12,000 votes in the by-election because even when the anti-BN mood was at its peak, they still managed to get more than 12,000 votes.
