BY JAHABAR SADIQ, EDITOR | APRIL 10, 2013
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 ― Umno plans on fielding their candidates either in all of the DAP seats or most of them as the Malay vote is more dependable than Chinese support, say strategists.
The Malaysian Insider understands the Barisan Nasional (BN) war room believes Umno candidates can beat back the DAP attack in Johor and other Malay-majority states rather than MCA hopefuls.
“Umno candidates have a better chance of keeping BN seats than the MCA, so we’re looking into pushing more Malay candidates,” a ruling coalition source told The Malaysian Insider.
DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang is spearheading the move into traditional MCA seat Gelang Patah while party strategist Liew Chin Tong is eyeing the Kluang seat. Johor PKR chief Datuk Seri Chua Jui Meng has also been named for the Segamat seat held by MIC.
It is learnt that BN will use the race card in the strategy against Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) Chinese candidates, especially in the Umno bastion state of Johor where the coalition won 80 per cent of the Malay vote in Election 2008.
“The MCA stands zero chance of winning any battle with the DAP. So, we can definitely beat DAP with our Malay support and at least 25 per cent Chinese support,” another BN source told The Malaysian Insider.
The Sin Chew Chinese daily had reported this week that MCA will “lend” its seats to Umno in Election 2013, in what is seen as an acknowledgement that the BN Chinese party is not confident of winning its seats.
MCA won only 15 out of the 40 federal seats in contested in Election 2008. It has also said it was swapping the Tronoh seat in Perak with MIC, which also suffered major losses in the 2008 general election.
But the move has not gone down well with MCA grassroots, who fear they will not get back their seats in future elections and reduce their power in the ruling coalition.
BN deputy chairman and Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday the coalition was “looking” into the possibility of fielding caretaker Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Abdul Ghani Othman in Gelang Patah rather than an MCA candidate.
He claimed that grassroots support for the idea was positive, saying that Lim did not anticipate this and that the DAP stalwart “is now trapped there”, suggesting that the veteran lawmaker would likely be defeated in the BN fortress.
“We are taking into consideration the views of all quarters because we need to study the details thoroughly as there are pros and cons,” Muhyiddin said.
MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has refused to contest the federal seat, saying local leader Jason Teoh would be the candidate while his party-controlled newspaper The Star has been promoting Ghani for the seat.
The 66-year-old Ghani has been a four-term mentri besar in Johor and is likely to be replaced by interim higher education minister Datuk Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin, who is not contesting again in the Pasir Gudang federal seat.
Some 13.3 million voters, including 5,200 abroad, are eligible to cast their ballots in Election 2013 to elect lawmakers in 222 federal and 505 state seats in 12 states. Sarawak already held its state elections in 2011.
The Election Commission (EC) will meet this morning to decide the nomination and polling dates in what is seen as the closest race in Malaysian history.
Lets pray they do this..The crazies have taken over the House of UMNO/BN..There are only very very few of UMNO candidates that can hold on to 25% Chinese vote..PAS and PKR is no pushover..The math don’t add up – Perkasa math…
Since CSL is willing to let Umno take over MCA seats, his claim that there will not be any Chinese representative in government if people vote for the DAP is all bullshit!
Yes, LKS is dooomed, since UmnoB/BN hv lots of fixed deposit in d form of postal votes, phantom votes, bribed votes, projek-IC votes, n U-name-what-also-got-1 votes
Furthermore, EC knows what 2 do mah, semua taken care of lor
The Gelang Patah constituency comprise of 50% Chinese, 30% Malays and 20% Indians. Even if only 60% Chinese, 50% Malays and 50% Indians vote for DAP, that’s 30 +15 + 10 = 55% – DAP wins. The point is UMNO is still thinking that it can bring to bear the weapon of Racism to the campaign, while DAP together with PAS and PKR are changing the contest from race-based to policy-based.
UMNO obviously thinks that Malaysians are too stupid to understand policy. Yet, the Malays, Indians and Chinese know UMNO is corrupt to the core, and that it’s now or forever too late to smash the culture of middleman corrupt commission-taking and redistribute middleman fees to the people who are doing the real work. There’s no reason why hard working Malays, Indians and Chinese who benefitted nothing from the middlemen will not vote for DAP.
On top of that, if UMNO focuses on DAP, then all the more reason they pay less attention to PKR and PAS – giving PKR and PAS an even bigger chance to win. Together then, Pakatan should form a strong and stable coalition comprising of status quo racial quota – not intended, but nevertheless a consequence that everyone can live with just as we’ve been living with it the past 55 years.
It sickens me to the stomach that UMNO Is pouring gifts/bribes to voters without any sense of guilt – those gift monies come from national coffers, not BN. So they are using our hard earned money to buy votes, while still pocketing the commissions to a tune of RM200 billion (being the sum accounted for illicit fund outflow aka corruption monies) not even counting those still in the country. And there is serious land grab issues in Johor which is just as bad as the transgressions occurring in Sarawak.
I believe that Malays will be able to distinguish an attack against corrupt UMNO leaders vs an attack on the race. And they will make the right call this time.
CSL has chickened out, even before the battle is fought…………….. shameful hypocrite.
Most chinese are die-hard supporters of DAP……… with an impregnable fortress hard to penetrate by BN. If not for election, Malays on the whole are being neglected and sidelined for far too long. I too believe that Malays are fully aware & able to distinguish a bad from a good government.
Obviously , BN dont have the confident to take gelang patah for this coming election even with a 50/50 possibility . Why “lend” from MCA , when u can snatch it from them since UMNO is the big brother in BN? What is the purpose of having MCA , while chinese votes for UMNO? Just disband MCA will do . These BN leaders are jokers.
How do their mathematic work? If you think voters still vote along race line, in chinese majority seat, how can Ghani win? Then, how about PAS, are they not malay?
MCA eventually managed to anger the whole chinese community, not only Gelang Patah, they will lose, i think they will lost their member, and MCA itself.
Stupid mca move….
Put to sleep Barisan Najis! Vote PR for a better malaysia.
in Gelang Patah 35% chinese vote Ghani , enough to win
Now UMNO wants to have a hand in every pie. This is what we call equal partnership! In a straight fight between MCA and DAP candidates, DAP would likely garner at least 65 to 75% of the Chinese votes and over 50% of the Indian votes and not less than 20% of the Malay votes. Should UMNO poke its nose in, I think DAP’s support among the non-Malays should increase. DAP is deeply indebted to UMNO for making the party so popular with the Chinese and Indians.
Mahathir: UMNO must field only candidates with clean record
Najib : If like that, not enough candidates lah
Mahathir : Bring them in from outside lol
Najib :But outside all opposition, boss
Mahathir : I mean from Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, India …… bodoh.
Mahathir: UMNO must field only candidates with clean record
Najib : If like that, not enough candidates lah
Mahathir : Bring them in from outside lol
Najib :But outside all opposition, boss
Mahathir : I mean from Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, India …… bodoh.