Dr Annuar Rapaee
SIBU: Nangka assemblyman Dr Annuar Rapaee was taken aback by United People’s Party (UPP’s) announcement yesterday of its potential candidates for Sibu and Lanang Parliamentary seats for the impending 14th General Election (GE14).
Dr Annuar, who is Assistant Minister for Education and Technological Research said there has neither been any form of consultation or discussion with regard to the potential candidates for both seats.
“To be honest, there is no such discussion involving PBB Nangka, UPP or SUPP and party leadership for that matter at the moment on possible candidates for Sibu and Lanang. That is why the announcement of candidates by UPP for the two seats caught me by surprise.
“I did not know about the function, where UPP announced their (potential) candidates today (yesterday). I learned it from a Whatsapp message sent by a friend that UPP has announced Dato Andrew Wong as the party’s potential candidate for Sibu parliament seat and Ting Kee Nguan for Lanang seat.
“I know Dato Andrew but not the other potential candidate (Ting). With Andrew announced by UPP to be BN potential candidate for Sibu so, my first expression was that – this announcement has caught me by surprise because as much as I would like to give my opinion on who is the candidate – it is not my level to endorse who is the candidate. I can only give my opinion and support but to endorse a candidate it is the prerogative of the top BN leadership,” he told thesundaypost when asked if he knew that there would be an announcement by UPP yesterday on candidates for the coming general election.
Dr Annuar, who is Assistant Minister of Housing and Public Health added: “Maybe, I am not necessarily to be consulted or be asked for my opinion. But as Nangka assemblyman, I would like as much as possible to be given a chance with regard to my view on who should be the candidate.
“So, I will abide by whoever the top BN leadership decides as candidates (for the two seats). But I also prefer to give my opinion because Nangka, which is one of the state seats that make up Sibu Parliamentary constituency, will definitely play an important role to BN to wrest the seat.”
He reasoned that parliamentary election is a different ball game altogether and the fine run in the last state election does not provide assurance BN would wrest both Sibu and Lanang parliamentary seats.
Adding on, he recalled that in 2016 state election, BN won in Nangka with 7,617 votes majority and about 4,000 majority in Bawang Assan, but lost in Pelawan by about the same margin.
“Be mindful that this was based on mathematical calculation. In election, while mathematical calculation is also important, more importantly is what election is all about. This is a general election and not a state election, where the issues on the ground are different.
“So, all these (factors) have to be taken into account and of course, more important thing is who is the candidate. So, we cannot equate the success of the last state election to that of parliamentary, where BN can win by about 7,000 votes (in Sibu seat),” he cautioned.
He opined there was a need to look at other factors because there were a lot of parties involved – not only UPP and SUPP but also within UPP and SUPP, where there are aspiring candidates.
To him – in order to solve this issue – the best candidate to win Sibu seat and get the support especially from non UPP or non SUPP supporters – is one who is not dragged into the party’s internal problems.
“In other words, a candidate, who is not so much involved in the tussle between UPP and SUPP,” he explained.
“Because if you pick a candidate who is so much involved in the tussle – either one or the other will not be happy. This can result in sabotaging of each other and this will not benefit BN and defeat the strong support of PBB in Sibu parliamentary seat.”
In short, the strong support from PBB Nangka for BN candidate in Sibu will have no impact if the tussle between these two (UPP and SUPP) is not resolved, he reckoned.
Dr Annuar stressed that of upmost importance was the unity among all BN component parties.
“So, don’t waste our PBB’s effort in supporting BN. As much as possible, we want BN candidate to win Sibu (seat). I hope this will be a clear message to whoever aspires to be candidate. Please don’t waste our effort just because you have squabbles among yourself.
“At the end of the day, I would leave it to the BN top leadership to decide who will be the (BN) candidate for Sibu and Lanang.
“We have spent so much time on infighting among ourselves and I have not seen any effort at all to consolidate which is actually our core strength,” he pointed out.
He said BN lost Sibu and Lanang seats previously because of their own weaknesses and not because the opposition was strong.
“And our main weakness is we have not been able to consolidate ourselves. For PBB, we are ready to support anyone who is able to consolidate and unite among themselves,” Dr Annuar assured.
Asked on voters’ reaction to new faces, he said getting new blood was good for any election but their backgrounds have to be vetted.
In that way, these candidates would be accepted by the voters in particular, new voters.
He highlighted that the new voters are very important to decide who they want to support as candidate because they are first time voters.
For the record, in the 13th GE, DAP fielded a new face – pharmacist Oscar Ling Chai Yew, who garnered 26,808 votes to edge his closest rival – Temenggong Dato Vincent Lau, who polled 23,967 votes, while Independent Narawi Haron got 203 votes in a three-cornered fight.
In Lanang, Alice Lau polled 26,613 votes to defeat former five-term Lanang MP Datuk Tiong Thai King, who secured 17,983 votes.