PENAMPANG: The Chinese community who made up 30 per cent of the voters in the urban areas made a wrong decision to support the opposition in the May 5 General Election (GE13), said Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) deputy president Senator Datuk Chin Su Phin.
He said as about 70 per cent of the voters in the rural areas still supported the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, even with the 30 per cent support of urban voters for the opposition, they would still be unable to cause the downfall of the BN.
Speaking at the joint annual general meeting (AGM) of the Api Api, Likas and Luyang divisions here yesterday, Chin said he had during the GE13 campaigning period, asked the Chinese community to be conscious and to think deeply whether they should give their votes to the opposition.
“Still quite a huge percentage of the Chinese voters supported the opposition, thinking that there would be a change of government, but from my personal observation, they made the wrong decision in not supporting the BN,” he said.
Chin pointed out that in a democratic country like Malaysia, no one can deny the fact that the voters have the right to support and vote for the political party of their choice to form the new government.
During GE13, he had repeatedly reminded the people that the BN was still strong and would again be victorious and form the new government after the polls.
He added that even the Prime Minister himself had realised about the swing of the Chinese support to the opposition and engaged the leaders from community and the NGOs in a dialogue in a concerted bid to regain their support.
“Yet, most of the Chinese voters were obsessed with the purported wind of change and supported the opposition without thinking about the future of the community. So it is wrong to accuse the BN government of taking revenge against the Chinese community should there be a reduction of government allocations to the community. This is a matter of principle; if you did not support BN, how could you now blame the government?” he said.
Chin also concurred with the views from the Chinese community that some problems still exist within the BN, and urged that all the coalition partners to show their seriousness and conviction to the people by working together to resolve the problems within the next five years.
He also pointed out it is a fact that the Chinese community is a minority in Malaysia and the gap is expected to be more significant over the next five to 10 years.
“We foresee that the BN will still be in power for the next five to 10 years and it is our hope that the Chinese voters will not blindly follow the wind of change, otherwise the community will stand to lose their position,” he cautioned.
Commenting on the government’s on-going transformation programs, Chin reckoned that it is high time for both the BN and Umno to also undergo the process of reformation and transformation.
On the appointment of ministers, he is of the opinion that sometimes the person appointed to the post was not fit or qualified to hold the position and ends up with the failure of leading the ministry and officers.
“Most of the time, the cause of the problem is due to the misconduct of the officers. In fact, the minister concerned had every right and is within his or her power and capacity to correct the situation, but it is sad to see that the minister had failed to do so.
“For example, the issue of top students being denied entry to local universities and the unfair award of scholarship is not something new as it has happened in the past. To us, the Prime Minister and the minister concerned have the right and capacity to solve this problem,” said Chin, who also touched on the implementation of the 1Malaysia concept.
“We must be serious in implementing this 1Malaysia concept because if it is really implemented, then the quota system for local universities and award of scholarship should be scrapped. Those government officers who act like little Napoleons and failing to adhere to government policy of achieving the goal of this concept should be sacked,” he stressed.
Chin is also of the view that despite the Prime Minister’s emphasis on power-sharing among the BN component parties, this concept hardly exist in Sabah.
“If we ask the PBS, UPKO or MCA, whether there is power-sharing within the Sabah BN, their answer would certainly be ‘no’. Only certain small component parties, if they have close ties with certain leaders, will get what they want, he lamented.
He also lamented that despite being the oldest member of the Sabah BN, the LDP, which contested in four state seats and one parliamentary seat in GE13 and delivered three state seats, was only given one full minister post and one assistant minister post.
“In the past, LDP used to have one full minister, one assistant minister and was also given the posts of chairman and members of board of directors in government agencies besides appointment as political secretary. Unfortunately, after the GE13, apart from the posts of one minister and one assistant minister, we are not given any other role in the State’s administration.
“We hope that after the Umno election at the end of this year, the Prime Minister will seriously consider reforming the BN. LDP never asks for anything; what we want is fairness as what the Prime Minister has emphasized on power-sharing,” he concluded.