Mah won't join Cabinet based on senatorship

Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong today reiterated his stand that he will not accept any cabinet post based on his appointment as a senator.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the by-election for the Teluk Intan parliamentary seat insisted that he would only accept a cabinet post if he was elected as the Teluk Intan MP.

"I still have to work hard to win first. I already stressed that if I lose, I won't be a senator," he told reporters after attending a breakfast session with 25 NGOs representing the Indian community, here.

Also present was Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also BN deputy chairman, and Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.

Mah said this when asked to comment on the statement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to Malaysian journalists covering his six-day visit to China on Thursday.

Najib had said, if Mah were to win in the Teluk Intan by-election tomorrow, he would be appointed into the Cabinet because Gerakan was a founding member of the BN coalition and it was the practice to make the party president a Cabinet member.

However, Najib, who is also BN chairman, said the portfolio that would be offered to Mah would be decided later.

In the Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election, Mah will be facing DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud in a straight fight.

Referring to the DAP, Mah said the Teluk Intan constituents must realise that the DAP would not field its candidate to contest twice in this (Teluk Intan) parliamentary constituency, even if the candidate had won.

"Never has any DAP candidate contested twice (in this constituency), the voters in Teluk Intan must realise that they have been cheated by the party which had always promised that its candidate would work hard if elected.

Meanwhile the DAP, despite having won the Teluk Intan by-election in 1997 through its candidate, M. Kulasegaran who beat BN candidate Dr Chee See Choke (Gerakan) by a 2,916-vote majority, had changed its candidate in the 1999 general election by fielding N. Rajendran who lost to Mah by a majority of 2,783

votes.

In the 2004 general election, Mah retained the seat by defeating DAP candidate Wu Him Ven in a three-cornered fight with a majority of 9,831 while in the 2008 general election the DAP fielded M.Manogaran who defeated Mah by a majority of 1,470 in a straight fight.

In the 2013 general election, the DAP fielded Seah Leong Peng, a former assemblyman for Pasir Bedamar, who defeated Mah by a majority of 7,313 votes in a three-way fight.

He said the most valuable experience he had gained as a former MP for Teluk Intan was the success in resolving the land ownership problem and the flood mitigation project costing RM30 million.

Meanwhile, UMNO vice-president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the Teluk Intan electorate must be capable of choosing a representative who could champion their cause and bring development to the constituency instead of resolving the party's internal problems.

"Let's not give our votes to the opposition candidate merely to resolve the problems of Lim Kit Siang or Anwar Ibrahim. We want to resolve the problems of the residents here," he told reporters after attending a gathering with the people in Kampung Batak Rabit here today.

Mohd Shafie also denied the allegation by the opposition that the allocation channelled to the residents in Teluk Intan was only because of the by-election, it was in fact a practice of the BN government from before to provide allocations based on the needs of the people.

The allegation by some groups, particularly the opposition, that the BN only gave out allocations during the election was totally untrue, he said.

"We must remember what the government has done. For example, the book voucher for students who cannot even vote, the diesel subsidy for fishermen from Perlis right up to Sabah whereas there is no election in other places.

"Don't listen to stories spread by the opposition as though they are voicing out everything. All this while, their voice is merely to blame the government without any effort to assist the people," he said.

Meanwhile in PUTRAJAYA, UMNO information head Datuk Ahmad Maslan hoped that the voters in the Teluk Intan parliamentary constituency would not reject the opportunity of having a member of the cabinet as their elected representative.

Referring to the pledge by Najib in Beijing about appointing Mah to the Cabinet if he were to win the by-election, Ahmad said the electorate in Teluk Intan should not miss this opportunity because if a minister were to represent the constituency, it would certainly see many changes for the better.

"In terms of development, there will be tremendous progress in the area because in his capacity as a minister, the elected representative will have the influence to develop the locality," he told the media after attending a briefing on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) together with the Pahang Mufti, here.

At the briefing earlier, Ahmad said the people must appreciate that the tax collected by the government from the people would be utilised for the benefit of the people themselves.