TELUK INTAN, May 21 — Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Teluk Intan candidate Datuk Mah Siew Keong asked voters here today to provide him and Gerakan voices in the coalition, ones with which he would use to seek a futsal hall, better Internet connectivity and more vernacular education.

In an interview at his office here today, the Gerakan president also suggested that a defeat in the “do or die” May 31 by-election — which would be his third in a row — would be terminal for his political career.

“The burden is so great … I lost last year. If I lose now again, I don’t have to tell you in black and white what will be my political future,” Mah said.

The same would also extend to his Gerakan, he said, which he would represent in BN meetings as the party president.

“Can you imagine the president, rejected by the people and trying to talk, ‘he wants this, he wants that, he wants this’. Come on lah, it doesn’t work this way,” he added.

The largely-Chinese Gerakan was almost wiped out in the May 5 general election last year, winning just one federal seat. Umno, in contrast, won 88 parliamentary seats.

But despite the risks, Mah said, not contesting was an unappealing option.

“If you’re not seen contesting, you’ll be seen as a coward,” he said.

The former two-term Teluk Intan MP explained that he was selected as candidate, despite saying earlier he did not intend to contest the 14th general election, because of the unexpected demise of MP Seah Leong Peng on May 1, just a year after Election 2013.

Mah also said development has been lacking in the past six years in the small town in Perak, pointing out that Teluk Intan’s youth have left to work in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

“We need a futsal hall for the young people; we need more WiFi access,” said Mah.

Mah then hit out at the DAP for claiming that he would be appointed senator even if he were to lose the May 31 Teluk Intan poll.

“The party had recommended two names for senatorship a couple of months back. My name was not in both lists. I did not recommend myself,” he said.

“Every night, I hear attacks against me at ceramah. I thought DAP is a party that talks about policies... I lost last year. If I lose now, will I be appointed? Please lah,” Mah added.

Mah, who had served as Teluk Intan MP for two terms before losing the seat twice in the 2008 and 2013 by-elections, also said race was not an issue in the by-election he is contesting with DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, a 26-year-old Malay woman.

“Among the (Gerakan) candidates to be groomed for GE14 included a Sikh and a Malay,” Mah noted, referring to the 14th general election.

Mah will face Dyana in a straight fight for Teluk Intan that he previously won in 1999 and 2004, but lost to DAP’s M. Manogaran in 2008 with a 1,470-vote majority.

DAP’s Seah Leong Peng had defeated Mah in 2013 with a 7,313 majority before succumbing to advanced bladder cancer on May 1, this year.