‘Tenang win indicates swing in Chinese votes’

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SARIKEI: Victory in the Tenang by-election reflected the revival of people’s confidence in Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership.

COFFEE TALK: Teng greeting some members of the public in a coffeeshop in Sarikei.

Assistant Minister of Food Industries Datuk David Teng Lung Chi said he believed BN’s victory by a bigger majority in the by-election was due to the Chinese community’s swing of votes in favour of BN.

Teng who is Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) treasurer-general regarded the Tenang by-election result as a big boost to BN in the coming state election which is expected to be called any time before July this year.

Teng said that most of the seats which BN lost in the 2006 state election were those contested by SUPP when the opposition successfully exploited or manipulated the land issue.

“The people voted for the opposition because they believed the opposition could provide the right answers to their land problems.”

However, after the opposition parties in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had been entrusted by the people to form their government in Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan, they failed to walk their talk, he said.

Instead of coming up with a better deal on land matters, the PR governments in the five states brought more disappointment to the people, Teng said, adding the PR governments could not even match the formula adopted by the Sarawak state government in resolving the issue.

“Compared to the four states under PR government, the rate of land premium in Sarawak is not only lower but simpler for the convenience of owners,” he said.

Teng was asked for his comments when he made a round of meet-the-voters in the town yesterday morning.

The PR governments in Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan had been given three years to prove themselves, yet they failed to prove their worth to the people, he said further.

He thus hoped that the people had realised that the PR parties were only good at making empty promises to mislead the people in order to achieve their selfish ambition to get into power.

At the same time, Teng hoped that the swing of Chinese votes in favour of BN in Tenang would happen in Sarikei, where he believed most Chinese voters had been misled by empty talks of the opposition.

Accompanying Teng were Sarikei MP Ding Kuong Hiing, councillors and community leaders.