JOHOR DAP chief Liew Chin Tong has a message for Wee Ka Siong as he prepares to wrest the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat from the MCA deputy president in the next general election.

It’s not personal.

“It’s nothing personal but it is a battle that is nationally symbolic; it is a seat where we present a choice between the new government and the old government,” said the Kluang MP in an interview with The Malaysian Insight recently.

“People know that they’re economically less prosperous and more disadvantaged now compared with five years ago.”

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today announced Liew’s candidacy for Ayer Hitam.

Liew, who is the DAP political education director, said the party’s decision to field him in Ayer Hitam, which Wee has held since 2004, was prompted by signs the MCA deputy president was “vulnerable”.

Liew said a Sin Chew article speculating over a possible DAP bid for the seat, which had traditionally been allotted to PAS, had sparked a “panic” in Wee’s camp.

Wee’s “visibly” weakened position, said Liew, was a surprise as Wee had defeated PAS candidate Hu Pang Chow in 2013 by a comfortable 7,310-majority vote. The Ayer Hitam constituency is made up of 56% Malays, 38% Chinese and 4% Indians.

“He’s panicking. Something is very wrong. So I sent my people to take a look. I went to talk to many people, and I sense that Wee Ka Siong is actually vulnerable.”

Below are excerpts from the interview:

Have the people of Ayer Hitam complained to you about the government or about Wee?

I think people generally like Wee Ka Siong, as a person. But they’re not happy with the government. They’re not happy with the economy. You see Ayer Hitam is not a very prosperous place. It’s not rich and it’s next to the highway.

So what do the young people do? Not only young people, but what does anybody there who aspires for a better life do? The moment they finish school, they hit the highway and they go somewhere else, work somewhere else.

And that is the situation for not only Chinese and Indians, but for Malays. Many Malays are working outside nd they’re not happy.

What do you think of Invoke’s survey that Johor could be won by Pakatan with a majority of two state seats?

I’ve always said that Pakatan has the opportunity to win ten more parliamentary seats in Johor. At the moment DAP has four, PKR has one and Bersatu has Pagoh. Based on what Invoke said, which was that Pakatan has the chance of winning 16 parliamentary seats out of 26, that is what I’ve always been saying. It tallies with what I’ve been saying.

State seats are not as easy, compared with parliamentary seats, because most state seats are mixed seats. Only eight seats have more than 60% Malays.

That means, for the most part, they have a confluence of votes. If 15% of the Malay voters who voted for BN in the last round vote for us, it will be enough to kill BN.

State seats are smaller and not as easy. But if we can win ten additional parliamentary seats and each parliamentary seat can bring one new state seat, the chances of winning 30 state seats is possible.

This election, it is not far-fetched to say that 15% of Malay voters who voted for BN will vote for Pakatan. And if you see a uniformed swing of 15% voters from Umno to Pakatan, Umno may lose 30 to 35 seats.

Some surveys such as one by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies indicate that Malay voters in Johor are hesitant to support an opposition coalition with DAP in it.

The survey was carried out in May to June last year. I believe there has been quite a few developments since.

If you look back, from 2013 onwards, (prime minister) Najib Razak had a very clear mega strategy. It was basically three-pronged.

Number one, take Anwar (Ibrahim) out of the equation so that the opposition has no common leader.

Number two, lure PAS into its fold so that the opposition has no Malay grassroots organisation.

Number three, brand DAP as the supremo and tell everyone that Lim Kit Siang wants to be prime minister. That was basically the gist of what Najib was trying to do.

What Najib didn’t expect was the 1MDB scandal that split Umno down right in the middle. And he didn’t expect Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) would go so far and eventually become the opposition leader.

When we appointed Dr Mahathir as the Pakatan chairman in July last year, immediately you sense a change. Why? Because all this while, Najib and Umno had no positive story. The only story was that you cannot vote for the opposition because the opposition is represented by DAP and Lim Kit Siang and Kit Siang would be prime minister.

But the appointment of Dr Mahathir in July and later his appointment as the PH prime minister candidate, together with Anwar as the eighth prime minister candidate, has changed the entire equation.

That means everyone can see that there’s a change of government, the prime minister is Dr Mahathir. And the next prime minister would be Anwar. The question of Lim Kit Siang becoming prime minister doesn’t’ arise at all.

What can a PH government offer?

First of all, the trouble with Najib is that he cannot recognise we have a problem with the economy. That’s Najib’s fundamental problem. When he sings praises about the economy, imagine how people who have to work three jobs feel? Imagine how they feel. What he talks about has nothing to do with them. They suffer and they know they suffer more now compared to five years ago. And that’s a common sentiment everywhere. – March 18, 2018.