PETALING JAYA, May 5 — Like many of his neighbourhood friends in 2008, Ryan Ho felt winds of change blowing when the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat denied Barisan Nasional a supermajority in Parliament.

Gorged on hope, Ho, who was then still too young to vote, said he lapped up the pact’s promises of reform and closely followed its performance as the new government of Selangor, one of five states it won that year.

In an interview with Malay Mail, he recounted watching DAP’s Tony Pua campaign for the Petaling Jaya Utara (now Damansara) federal seat and believed it when the latter vowed that change — real change — was on the way.

“But that change never came. They have had 10 years with Selangor, I don’t see any significant changes,” said Ho, who is BN’s candidate for the Damansara seat in the 14th general election.

Rather than change, Ho insisted that conditions instead deteriorated, citing the state’s growing problems with reliable water supply, while some long-standing problems such as inefficient waste collection were never resolved.

Disillusioned by the broken promises, the lawyer said he then began to study the alternatives to the federal Opposition pact, with MCA piquing his interest, in particular.

“I thought to myself and I wondered why MCA was helping the people when they had nothing to benefit from, and moreover it was difficult to help the people when the party was not part of the state government,” he said.

From there, Ho began entertaining ideas of uniting Malaysians, but was turned off by the fire and brimstone that feature so prominently among Opposition parties.

Remembering his curiosity about MCA, he started to believe that the one way he could achieve his goal was through BN’s Chinese-based component.

Ten years after he first saw Pua speak, Ho is seeking to oust the same DAP lawmaker, whom he now accused of being an absentee MP along with outgoing Damansara Utama representative Yeo Bee Yin.

Despite his feelings about Pua’s performance, however, Ho is under no illusions about the size of the task that awaits him. Pua first won in 2008 with a majority of 19,972 votes, which ballooned to 44,672 votes five years later.

Facing not just Pua but also Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s Datuk Wong Mun Kheong, Ho is trying to claw back that deficit one voter at a time.

“My approach is simple. Everyone I meet, I give them my word that I will be around all the time to help them.

“I will not speak bad about my contenders,” he said.

Conceding to some voter negativity towards BN, particularly over 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Ho stressed that the controversy over the state investment firm was already ended.

Aside from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the matter, he said there was also ample information available to satisfy any curiosity about the matter.

“I would only need to break it down and explain the context of it unless I am asked or else I don’t see the need bringing it up,” he said.

On the ceramah circuit, Ho stays on message with his call for unity, extending this to include unity between the federal and state government as he tries to carry his three running mates for the state seats under Damansara.

He conveys to voters what could be achieved if both administrations were controlled by BN, promising that this would ensure consistent and stable development.

The three seats under Damansara are Bandar Utama (previously Damansara Utama), Kampung Tunku, and Bukit Lanjan.

Bandar Utama is a three-horse race involving DAP’s Jamaliah Jamaluddin, BN’s Ch’ng Soo Chau and independent candidate Peter Chong Fook Meng.

In Kampung Tunku, the contest is between DAP’s Lim Yi Wei and BN’s Tan Gim Tuan.

Bukit Lanjan will see PKR incumbent Elizabeth Wong defend her seat against BN’s Syed Abdul Razak Alsagoff.

Both Jamaliah and Lim are contesting on PKR’s tickets as part of the larger Pakatan Harapan pact.