Spirited duo: Saw (left) and Yeoh striking a pose outside MCA’s operation room in Bayan Baru. — LIM BENG TATT/The Star
GEORGE TOWN: While it is anyone’s guess when the 15th General Election (GE15) will be called, both MCA and DAP have shifted gears into overdrive to woo Chinese voters in Penang.
MCA started the ball rolling with the launch of the Bayan Baru and Pantai Jerejak operation rooms in Persiaran Bukit Jambul here.
Two new faces – Saw Yee Fung and Yeoh Chin Kah – were introduced as the party’s Bayan Baru parliamentary seat and Pantai Jerejak state seat coordinators.
Yeoh is Penang MCA secretary while Saw, who is also the party’s spokesman, is seen as the poster girl for GE15.
An actuarial science graduate, Saw is no political novice, having served as the private secretary of Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun when she was the deputy women, family and community development minister.
She has hit the pre-campaign trail in the parliamentary constituency with her #BayanBaruBaru tagline.
Likewise, Yeoh and other senior party figures have also raised issues on the ground such as the Bayan Lepas Light Rail Transit project and social and welfare matters affecting the masses.
Penang MCA has traditionally run for four parliamentary seats and 10 state seats in Penang. With Gerakan now out of Barisan, Penang MCA is eyeing more seats this time around.
It has appointed eight parliamentary and 22 state coordinators to look after their respective constituencies.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, they are most likely to be fielded as candidates in these seats during GE15.
State MCA chairman Datuk Tan Teik Cheng said breaking the duck would be of paramount importance, as the party had suffered wipeouts in Penang during the last three general elections.
“We hope to achieve a breakthrough. Please support us and I promise we will give our best.
“We want to be the voice that provides check-and-balance in the state assembly,” he said, adding that more than 70% of the coordinators were new faces, made up of those under 45 years old, while women represented 20% of them.
Not wanting to be outdone, Penang DAP also launched its election machinery for GE15 in a grand fashion recently.
Present were big guns like party adviser Lim Kit Siang, chairman Lim Guan Eng, secretary-general Anthony Loke and state chairman Chow Kon Yeow.
The recent Mid-Autumn Festival certainly came at the right time, providing both sides of the political divide with a much-needed avenue to get close to voters through a series of festive activities and lantern processions.
The Pakatan-led administration in Penang has increased its seats since it first captured the state in 2008.
Out of the 40 state seats, the coalition – first known as Pakatan Rakyat before it was renamed Pakatan Harapan – won 29 seats in 2008, 30 seats in 2013, and 37 seats in 2018.
But Pakatan now controls only 33 seats as four Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia assemblymen have joined the Opposition bloc in Penang.
Chow, who is Penang’s Chief Minister, believes GE15 will most likely be called this year.
“What we are seeing now is the political aftermath of the Sheraton Move (that felled the Pakatan government in February 2020), the Covid-19 pandemic, the disruption to the status quo of the political alignment and the emergence of new political coalitions and new political players. There is a sense of despair among the electorate over what has happened.
“Having a general election will allow the people to express and shape the future of the country. The present situation, if it persists, would disrupt the country. Hopefully, GE15 will have an outcome that can bring the country forward instead of remaining in a stalemate,” he said.
With GE15 likely to be his swansong, Chow, who is also Penang Pakatan chairman, said each party within the coalition would get priority to contest the same seats, especially seats where one is the incumbent.
“For now, everything will remain status quo unless there is a mutual agreement to swap seats among coalition partners for tactical and strategic reasons.
“We can bring that up for discussion by looking at the state’s electoral history, the new dynamics of young voters under Undi18 and what type of possibility there would be.
“All this will be subjected to fine-tuning and negotiation,” he added.
In GE14, Pakatan secured victory in 37 out of the 39 seats contested. The DAP fielded candidates for 19 seats, followed by PKR (14), Amanah (three) and Bersatu (three).
Two Bersatu assemblymen and two PKR assemblymen who had since left the party and joined Bersatu had pledged their support to Perikatan Nasional.
Wresting the state from Pakatan at its fortress would seem to be a tall order for Barisan or Perikatan.
Denying them a two-thirds majority, perhaps, is a more reasonable and realistic target.
