PETALING JAYA: The DAP cannot be forever reliant on its Pakatan Harapan (PH) partners to woo Malay voters, said its state chief Tey Kok Kiew(pix).
Quoting Tey, Malaysiakini, in its report, said that he had volunteered himself to contest in the state seat of Bemban, which is Malay-majority but also has a substantial non-Malay population.
With this, Tey is moving from his safe seat of Bandar Hilir, which he won with 83 per cent of the votes, the largest margin in the entire state. The Bandar Hilir electorate is more than 70 per cent Chinese.
“DAP can’t stay in town areas, we need to expand our influence. As the state chief, I have to lead by example by going to a more rural area, getting to know the life of other races and giving them a chance to get to know us.
“Only then DAP can go a long way. We can’t rely on our partner parties to gain Malay support. We can do that in the short term, but in the long term, we need Malays to understand our struggles and ideas.
“I believe only then more Malays will support us,“ he said.
Tey said as the state chief, he is more recognisable, and therefore it was his responsibility to contest in a riskier seat, the report added.
“We felt that there was a strategic need. I myself felt the need.
“As I said, in order to be the ruling government, we need 15 seats including Bemban,“ he said. There are 28 seats in the state assembly.
In Bemban, Tey will face Barisan Nasional’s Koh Chin Han, Perikatan Nasional’s Mohd Yadzil Yaakub and independent candidates Azmi Kamis and Ng Choon Koon.
In 2018, DAP won the Bemban seat but only with 45.4 per cent of the votes in a three-cornered fight.
