PENANG Barisan Nasional is enjoying much better press these days compared with the past, said its chairman, Teng Chang Yeow.

In the past, he said eight out of 10 people he approached with would ignore him outright.

“Today, only one in 10 will turn away,” said the state Gerakan chairman, who is contesting the Tanjung Bungah state seat against Pakatan Harapan, Malaysian United Party and Parti Rakyat Malaysia this general election.

“This is human nature. (PH’s) DAP has been in government for 10 years. It has not fulfilled many promises and people are becoming unhappy with some of its policies,” he told Malaysia Decides.

In suburban Tanjung Bungah, where Teng is hoping to make his return to the Penang legislative assembly, some residents are unhappy. The seat with many upper-middle class and affluent neighbourhoods has many high-rises projects and the new ones in the hilly areas often hit a raw nerve with locals, who want an end to hillslope developments.

Teng, 54, a former state exco dealing with tourism development and environmental policy formulation and implementation before Penang fell to the opposition in 2008, said traffic and environmental issues are Tanjung Bungah’s main concerns now.

“To tackle the traffic problem in Tanjung Bungah, you need to have a dispersal plan. You must know the hot spots and then work out a solution,” he said, adding that a traffic dispersal plan is part of the Penang BN manifesto.

“On environmental issues, we (BN) will go all out. Some of us are already facing suits for raising some issues, but if we are elected, it will be a different ball game.

“We will raise these issues at the state assembly sitting, and make sure the state government doesn’t evade the questions. They turned a deaf ear when the former rep Teh Yee Cheu raised these issues in the past.”

Teh, formerly from DAP, won Tanjung Bungah by 5,515 votes in 2013. The seat in the Bukit Bendera parliamentary seat has 21,768 voters consisting of 60.35% Chinese, Malays (26.44%), Indians (11.48%%) and others (1.73%) at GE14. – April 30, 2018.