JOHOR BARU: Like a phoenix rising from the ash, first-timer candidate MCA Gelang Patah chairman Datuk Jason Teoh Sew Hock is rising to the occasion in ensuring that he will swing the votes to BN in a previously DAP-led Iskandar Puteri constituency.
This followed a devastating last minute change in 2013 General Election when his name was dropped off the list of BN candidates, a day before the nomination letter was supposed to be issued to him.
The seat was instead given to the then Johor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Othman to contest, who subsequently lost the seat to DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang by a majority of more than 14,000 votes.
Now given the opportunity to be a come back kid in the constituency which he had been serving for the last 10 years in Gelang Patah, Teoh is more persistent to wrest the Iskandat Puteri seat.
His challenge is to convince the 138,299 voters in Gelang Patah, who are predominantly Chinese. The parliamentary has been renamed Iskandar Puteri and also includes 70,928 voters in Skudai.
Teoh, 49, when met said he has a game plan to attract voters by reaching out to every area in Iskandar Puteri, including the rural villages and urban residences.
“I am no stranger to the people here in Gelang Patah as they know what I have done despite this being DAP fort,” he said.
He said BN had lost the seat previously due to the approach, and not candidates.
“The voters were with me then but things changed in the last minute and the voters were disheartened, leading to a change-of-heart voting for Kit Siang as they hardly knew Tan Sri Ghani at the time,” he said.
Teoh is confident that now is his time to shine and regain the seat for BN.
The BN candidates for the parliamentary and states seats there are very uniquely multicultural as Teoh represented the Chinese, Datuk S. Kanan G. Suppiah for the Indians and contesting in Skudai while Mohammad Khairy A. Malik as a Malay candidate contesting in Kota Iskandar.
Teoh said the three of them are the homeboys of Gelang Patah and had years of experience with local issues.
Dubbed “Trio Anak Jati Gelang Patah”, the three’s cheering squad slogans in Bahasa Malaysia are “3 calon, 3 bangsa, 3 budaya - 1 jiwa, 1 hasrat, 1Malaysia!”
