BARISAN Nasional’s candidate in Iskandar Puteri may have a good reputation among the grassroots, but the parliamentary constituency will not see change if victory goes to the nation’s oldest alliance, said voters.

Jason Teoh Sew Hock is chief of Iskandar Puteri MCA, a Chinese party that is part of BN, which has held power over the last 61 years.

“He may be seen as someone who does a lot of work here, but the job of an elected representative is not to clean drains. Their job is to make changes at the policy level. And for that, I will pick DAP,” said 64-year-old Sam Chew.

He was among the 1,200 attendees at a DAP campaign event in Iskandar Puteri last night.

At that event alone, the party collected RM12,000, which will go towards funding its election campaign.

DAP and Amanah candidates for the Iskandar Puteri and Kulai seats spent three hours talking about issues that are close to the people’s hearts.

“The only public transportation we have in Johor are buses. If we miss one, we have to wait an hour for the next bus,” said DAP supporter Terrance Tan, 52.

“As for housing, how many of us can afford houses here? A small flat or apartment will cost us between RM350,000 and RM400,000.

“Of course, Singaporeans can afford all this, but not us locals.”

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang took to the stage at 11.30pm. In a hoarse voice, due to non-stop speeches given throughout the day, he said change is needed not only for the Chinese, but also the Indians and Malays.

“It concerns everyone in Malaysia. It concerns us,” he said when talking about the goods and services tax, and the rising cost of living.

Lim, who is the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the Iskandar Puteri seat, will contest under the PKR logo.

PH components DAP, PKR, Amanah and Bersatu have agreed that all their candidates will use PKR’s logo in the 14th general election, following the Registrar of Societies’ announcement that Bersatu will be temporarily deregistered due to its failure to submit documents. – April 29, 2018.