IN the land where elephants once roamed, Pakatan Harapan (PH) rolled out the big guns in Alor Gajah tonight as the coalition continued its “Jelajah Harapan” in Malacca.

In front of a packed crowd of almost 3,000, PH unleashed its presidential council chairman and prime mininster-designate Dr Mahathir Mohamad and deputy prime minister candidate and PH President Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, upon Malacca.

Backing them were PH deputy presidents Mohamad Sabu and Muhyiddin Yassin, secretary-general Saifuddin Abdullah and DAP organisng secretary Anthony Loke.

Pakatan also had a flurry of simultaneous events all over Malacca with Dr Mahathir holding a “teh tarik” session while DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng met voters elsewhere.

To highlight the importance of Alor Gajah, Loke, who is also Seremban MP, said the composition of the Alor Gajah seat resembled the population of Malaysia.

“DAP has contested here many times but lost. As such we have given way to Bersatu to take this seat.

“If Pakatan wins here, MCA will be finished. They won here because of Umno’s strength.

“As such we want Bersatu to fight this Umno proxy. I want all the Chinese here to vote for Bersatu and send MCA out. This is their longest seat,” said Loke.

He said if Alor Gajah, that had 59% Malay, 28% Chinese and 13% Indian voters in GE13 can fall, then Pakatan can win many seats in Johor and will be on its way to Putrajaya.

The Alor Gajah parliamentary consists of five state seats – Rembia, Gadek, Machap, Durian Tunggal and Asahan.

Created in 1974, Alor Gajah is a BN seat and is represented by Koh Nai Kwong.

In the 2013 elections, Koh defeated DAP’s Damien Yeo by a majority of 11,597 votes.

Mohamad said everyone was responsible for winning and losing in GE14.

“Alone all the four parties are not strong. Together it can be unbeatable. If Bersatu loses Amanah and DAP are responsible. If another party loses all the others are similarly responsible,” said Mohamad, who is Amanah president.

PH consists of DAP, PKR, Amanah and Bersatu.

Earlier, Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen of Bersatu used the National Feedlot Corporation case as an example of how unjust the country has become.

“The people (Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli and former Public Bank clerk Johari Mohamad) who highlighted the issue were sentenced to jail but the persons behind the case were promoted.

“Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, whose husband Mohamad Salleh Ismail ran NFC, was promoted from Datuk Seri to Tan Sri but others have to pay for it. This shows how bad corruption has become,” said the Bersatu Supreme Council member.

In the last elections in 2013, BN won 21 seat while Pakatan Rakyat took seven seats in Malacca’s 28-seat state assembly. At the federal level, BN won four while Pakatan took two parliamentary seats. – February 25, 2018.