Bentong will stay with MCA in GE14, says former MP

PETALING JAYA: Former Bentong MP Lim Ah Lek has expressed confidence the MCA will be able to retain that parliamentary seat in the next general election (GE14).

Speaking to FMT, Lim, who was once MCA deputy president, said feedback from voters showed that things were looking good for the MCA.

“I have a strong feeling that the Barisan Nasional (BN) will be able to win in Bentong yet again and this time with an even bigger majority,” he said.

In GE13, MCA president Liow Tiong Lai won the seat, but DAP candidate Wong Tack won 49% of the votes.

“Liow has been doing well for the people of Bentong and the voters in Bentong are loyal to politicians who serve them,” Lim said.

He said the Chinese voters would have to decide what was good for them: either a party that had been servicing them or a party that only knew how to criticise.

“Look at Selangor. There are still so many problems that have been left unsolved, and even then the opposition continues to throw criticisms.

“Meanwhile, even in some of the areas MCA has lost, they continue to serve, and the party does that because those who have won are too busy criticising to solve the people’s problems.

“If the people are hoodwinked by those criticisms then that’s up to them. This is the way of democracy. All that those being criticised can do is to continue serving the people.”

The Bentong parliamentary seat gained some infamy when rumors spread on social media following Wong’s defeat at the last general election that a power outage had occurred in the vote counting centre and that a suspicious ballot box had been sent to the centre.

Although opposition leaders had come forward to clarify that there was no blackout at the vote counting centre and no appearance of a suspicious ballot box at the 11th hour which overturned the electoral result, many voters still believed lights were switched off or that some unseen transaction had taken place after the election.

According to undi.info, out of the more than 60,000 voters who came out to vote there in the last general election, 45% were Malays, 44% Chinese and the remaining 9% Indians.

The Bentong parliamentary seat has been an MCA stronghold since the federal constituency was created in 1958.

The DAP, however, holds three of the four state seats in the Bentong parliamentary constituency: Bilut, Ketari and Sabai. Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob holds Pelangi.

Lim, himself, became Bentong MP after winning in a 1989 by-election following the death of its incumbent, Chan Siang Sun, also from the MCA. He remained the MP until 1995.

In 1999, he was replaced by Liow who has been the Bentong MP since. -FMT