PAKATAN Harapan’s failure to fulfil its 14th general election manifesto promises is one of the leading factors that led to Barisan Nasional capturing the Semenyih seat on Saturday, voters said.

Ravichandran Munusamy, 36, said he never saw any PH leaders come down to the ground to address water supply problems in the constituency.

“Many manifesto promises have not been fulfilled. The current ruling government seems to be doing little more than the previous government. The government needs to prioritise the people’s needs,” he said.

“I have never seen anyone from PKR here after the general election. BN was the first to come down and listen to the issues here, including our water supply problems.”

More disappointingly, he said, was the cancellation of many projects, which he said were sorely needed.

“We need public transport, but the government cancelled it. Yes, the government said there is a lot of debt, but it needs to think first before cutting projects,” he said.

Another voter, Maizan Ahmad, 57, believes the government should have brought about bigger change to improve people’s lives.

He said the PH government failed in this role and ignored the plight of the needy.

This was in contrast to the attitude of former BN assemblyman Johan Abd Aziz who, according to him, often met Semenyih voters.

“Johan always came here, even just to say hello. Even if he could not ultimately resolve the problem, we could see the effort. We don’t see PH coming here,” he said.

“If you ask for allocations from the government, they’ll say the previous government threw the country into serious debt. It’s the same old story over and over.

“When you are running the country, don’t blame others. You need to revitalise your struggle. We already voted for PH in the general election,” said Maizan.

The defeat in Semenyih on Saturday was also due to the perceived arrogance of government leaders, said Abdul Halim Sidek, a political analyst from Universiti Malaysia Kelantan.

This was apparent through unpopular policies, such as the smoking ban and end to discounts on summonses, he said.

“The PH government must act rationally on issues raised. Do not be proud and arrogant after winning Putrajaya.”

He added that PH must also address the issue of Muslim and Malay right if it wanted to continue to have voters’ trust.

Umno has won the Semenyih state seat in every election since 1959, losing it for the first time to Bakhtiar Mohd Nor from Bersatu in last year’s May general election.

The Semenyih by-election saw BN wrest back the seat with a 1,914-vote majority, defeating PH, which won 17,866 votes. – March 4, 2019.