CHINESE voters in Port Dickson are more interested in what Anwar Ibrahim can do for them than what he should do to further his ambition to become the prime minister.

They want Anwar, who will be contesting in the Port Dickson by-election on October 13, to be a service-orientated representative who will give equal focus to the constituency once he becomes prime minister.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insight, they complained about the lack of development in Port Dickson, causing many young people to move out to places like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur for jobs.

Most male Chinese voters wanted Anwar to develop the local economy while female voters were more concerned about the cost of living.

Welder Teoh Ah Ming said the previous Barisan Nasional government did not bring enough development to Port Dickson, something which he hoped Anwar would rectify.

Retiree Yip Chew, meanwhile, said BN failed to take advantage of the tourism sector in this seaside town, adding that Anwar should also get Putrajaya to invest in some light industries to develop the local economy.

“Let Anwar contest, I hope he can bring more ideas and understand our needs,” he said.

Coffee shop owner Tan Kia Sheng also wants Anwar to revive the tourism industry.

“We want to see how he can bring changes, including to the tourism industry here,” he said.

Most of the female voters, however, were concerned about the cost of living.

Housewife Loo Siew Peng said she hoped that Anwar would ease the burden of the people here.

“I hope he can help when we need him to do something.”

While generally the sentiment was that the Chinese voters here were more concerned with bread-and-butter issues, some were also uncertain, preferring to wait for the campaign to start before making up their minds.

There were also murmurs of discontent on the manner the by-election was engineered.

The constituency, formerly known as Teluk Kemang, has 75,212 voters with Malays making 42%, Chinese (33%), and Indians (22%).

PKR’s Danyal Balagopal Abdullah won the seat in GE14 by 36,225 votes, beating BN’s V. Mogan and PAS’ Mahfuz Roslan.

He then gave up his seat two weeks ago to allow Anwar to contest and make his comeback to Parliament. This seat has been in PKR’s hands since 2008.

All these point to the hard work ahead for PKR and Pakatan Harapan to bring out the voters on polling day to ensure a win for Anwar.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said on Sunday he will be canvassing for Anwar in Port Dickson, adding that the polls will be “an important milestone” for the PKR president-elect to take his place in Parliament. – September 25, 2018.