ISKANDAR PUTERI: Iskandar Puteri voters are angered and disappointed that DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang will be defending his parliamentary seat in the impending general election.
The Iskandar Puteri seat was formerly known as Gelang Patah, which Lim won five years ago, but they say he has hardly ever been seen since coming out triumphant in 2013.
The New Straits Times Press met with several voters recently, all of whom expressed their anger, adding that they could not fathom why Lim would return to defend the seat when he had never attended to the needs of the people in the entire five-year stint as Gelang Patah member of parliament.
Housewife Zabedah Ahmad, 57, said Lim winning the Iskandar Puteri seat in the last election was meaningless as he did not serve the locals nor attend to local issues.
“He only appears at night for ceramah, but during the day, he is nowhere to be found. It is unbecoming of Lim to neglect the Gelang Patah people’s needs,” she said.
Zabedah said the community in Iskandar Puteri should realise they would never be able to depend on Lim for anything as he had no intention to make the place better.
Selesa Jaya resident Sarala Velaupham, 45, said she hoped there were better things to come for the Indian community in the area, so long as Lim was not voted in again.
She said Lim had done nothing for the Indian community, or any other community for that matter, since being voted in as Gelang Patah MP.
Sarala said Lim may have won the 2013 election there, but he has yet to win over the Gelang Patah community’s “heart” as the DAP senior statesmen is never around when the community needs its elected representative to attend to localised issues.
“Since he took over Gelang Patah five years ago, the people here hardly got to see him around as he is always not available in Gelang Patah,” she said.
Sarala said that was the reason why many in the Indian community in Gelang Patah did not know Lim, with some even not having ever heard his name.
Taman Mas resident Nyam Mei Ting predicted that the coming election would see Chinese votes being split between Lim and Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Jason Teoh Sew Hock of MCA.
But the 43-year-old’s prediction was based not so much on Lim’s track record in Gelang Patah, though she admitted this was indeed bad, but the DAP adviser’s apparent tiff with former Johor party chairman Dr Boo Cheng Hau.
“The bulk of the Chinese voters are in Skudai and they used to root for Kit Siang. But a faction that supports Dr Boo are likely going to sway their votes against Kit Siang for Jason,” she said.
Nyam said Lim had failed, as Gelang Patah MP, to unite the people here as he never made any effort to attend to the people’s needs.
