KUANTAN, March 19 — Defeat in the Sabai state seat and the slim victory obtained in the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat at the 13th General Election (GE13) is enough to jolt the Pahang MIC from its comfort zone.
The loss of the state seat by only 117 votes and the 462 votes which prevented the Cameron Highlands seat from falling into the hands of the Opposition was described by Pahang MIC liaison chairman Datuk R. Goonasekaran as “painful lesson for the party”.
Hence, he said, after the GE13, there was no such term as ‘honeymoon’ for the MIC; instead, the party began to devise a strategy, including working with other Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties to approach Indian voters in the state, especially those in rural areas.
“We identify weaknesses in the machinery and understand the issues faced by the Indian community and work to overcome them.
“With the non-stop work and efforts put in over the last five years, we are confident MIC and BN will be able to win back Sabai and retain Cameron Highlands in the 14th General Election (GE14),” he told Bernama recently.
On its part, the Wanita MIC machinery is going to the ground to shed light on certain issues, especially the Opposition’s propaganda to discredit the government on social media, to enable the Indian community to get the true picture.
He said the measure had made the people realise that what was being transmitted, including the question of Goods and Services Tax (GST), 1MDB and the rise in the price of goods was nothing more than attempting to bring down the government to win the GE14.
According to statistics from the Election Commission until the third quarter of 2017, the number of Indian voters registered in Pahang was 37,180 people, that is 4.56 per cent of the total 815.413 registered voters in the state.
Although the number was not up to five per cent, Goonasekaran said the government had never marginalised the Indian community but was always trying to upgrade their lives to be able to compete with other races in the state. — Bernama
