GEORGE TOWN, March 19 — Zairil Khir Johari believes his track record and performance as Bukit Bendera MP will be enough to convince voters to support him again come the 14th general elections (GE14).
The Penang DAP vice-chairman, who may either be defending his parliamentary seat or a state seat in GE14, says he will highlight the work he has done in Parliament as well as the improvements he has brought to the Bukit Bendera constituency.
“I know my political opponents have been using all sorts of smear tactics, even since 2013, against me,” he told Malay Mail in an interview, referring to various allegations against him including his alleged affair with Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.
Zairil and Dyana were engaged two weeks ago. The DAP MP has also confirmed that his previous and most recent marriage ended last year.
The DAP leader says he doesn’t believe that this will affect voters’ confidence in his ability to carry out his duties as an MP.
“Sensational things like this tend to grab headlines but I hope people aren’t as shallow as that but will judge me based on my work done in both Parliament and my constituency,” he said.
Zairil stressed that his relationship with Dyana is a private matter, and that he would like to keep it separate from his work as an elected representative.
As for his performance in Parliament, Zairil said he had raised issues such as the 1BestariNet and the change in English textbooks in schools in Parliament and managed to get the government to be more accountable to these issues.
“I’ve also stood up to other issues like the RUU 355, sexual violence and many other local issues,” he said.
He added that he has also resolved a lot of local problems in his own constituency.
“We take in every complaint that comes to us and try to resolve it, even if it is not within my constituency,” he said.
The local problems he had resolved include road infrastructure such as installation of traffic lights and drainage issues.
“I’ve also replaced the entire piping system for flats in Tanjung Tokong, repainted the Rifle Range flats and replaced the lifts in some low cost and low medium cost flats,” he said.
He said he had brought in a lot of infrastructure improvements and this is on top of state projects such as the planned paired road project linking Tanjung Bungah to Batu Ferringhi.
Bukit Bendera, once a Gerakan stronghold
Though DAP had won the Bukit Bendera seat with a vast majority of 32,778 in the 2013 elections, Zairil said it is still a seat that was traditionally a Gerakan stronghold.
Former Penang chief minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon held the Tanjung Bungah state seat, within the Bukit Bendera constituency, for four terms between 1990 and 2008, even beating DAP stalwart, Lim Kit Siang, with a 7,703 majority in 1995.
“We can’t discount the fact that this used to be a Gerakan stronghold and we can’t take the voters for granted because they may decide to change anytime,” he said.
Bukit Bendera will not be an easy seat especially now with issues attached to all of its three state seats, Tanjung Bungah, Pulau Tikus and Kebun Bunga.
DAP’s incumbent Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu has decided to quit the party the moment Parliament is dissolved.
Zairil was tasked with opening a new DAP service centre in Tanjung Bungah, spurring talks that he may just be the candidate picked for the state seat.
Just last week, Pulau Tikus incumbent Yap Soo Huey also announced her decision not to defend her seat as she will be pursuing her studies overseas.
PKR’s Kebun Bunga incumbent Cheah Kah Peng has been in the bad books of the Pakatan Harapan state government since 2016 when he and another PKR assemblyman, Ong Chin Wen, abstained from voting against a land reclamation motion proposed by Umno in late 2015.
Cheah has since been sacked from Penang government-linked companies and was also barred from handling the state’s flood aid list late last year.
There were also hot issues such as landslides, claims of over-development, traffic congestion and fishermen’s livelihood being impacted by the land reclamation that were played up in the constituency.
“If we talk about claims of over-development, it depends on which perspective we are looking at because if we have the infrastructure to support it, it shouldn’t be an issue,” he said.
He said this is why the paired road between Tanjung Bungah and Batu Ferringhi is important, as it would alleviate traffic congestion along the Tanjung Bungah road leading up to Batu Ferringhi.
The state’s Congestion Alleviation Transport (CAT) free bus service, which starts on April 1, will also ease the traffic congestion by encouraging more people to take public transport.
