MCA’s Goh confident of recapturing Kapayan for BN
PENAMPANG: Sabah MCA has never given up or abandoned the people of Kapayan even though the constituency went to the then Democratic Action Party (DAP) candidate Dr Edwin Bosi in the 13th General Election, according to the party’s state deputy chief Datuk Francis Goh.
“As a matter of fact, our work and machinery in the constituency started as early as four years ago, after I took over the chairmanship of MCA Penampang from Datuk Paul Kong,” Goh said in an interview at his office yesterday.
The prominent local property developer has been confirmed as the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Kapayan state seat.
Goh said their efforts in the last four years to win the hearts of the Kapayan constituents, some of whom were unaware who was Edwin had yielded positive results.
“Our efforts have allowed us to raise the people’s awareness on what their elected ADUN could do for them; by the time Edwin left DAP to join Parti Anak Negeri, the people in Kapayan already had the general conception concerning the role of their ADUN,” he added.
He said MCA tried to address and resolve most of the issues that were plaguing the Kapayan folk such as clogged drains, unkempt grass and others, even though it was the responsibility of the elected representative and the party he represented.
“I sometimes used my own machinery to unclog drains that were the cause of flooding in Kapayan. As a result, you seldom hear of people complaining about these things much anymore,” he said.
Goh claimed that many of the voters in Kapayan had been unhappy with Edwin, but he could not blame the latter.
“I can understand his predicament being in the opposition. I understand the hardship he faces as an opposition YB. Being the opposition party candidate means that you don’t have privileges (such as in the form of budgets that allow you to help your constituents), so you can only bark (about the problems),” he said.
However, this could be easily resolved by a Barisan Nasional YB, he said.
“The advantages of being a BN candidate is that I will be able to bring about progress to the Kapayan constituency. And as a BN component party, we can also raise issues that the opposition are also raising, but we are able to find a resolution through internal negotiations and agreements,” he said.
For example, issues such as the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) had also been raised by BN’s component parties, he said.
As a result, the Federal Government had mentioned in its BN manifesto that it would give back to Sabah and Sarawak what was rightly theirs, he said.
He also reminded them of MCA’s fight to get the Unified Chinese Examination (UEC) recognized by the government.
“We have struggled for decades, and we finally got it. For the first time, it is given in black and white ... the obstacles were caused by several leaders in UMNO who blocked the recognition. Soon after they left, just within two years, we managed to convince the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is moderate in nature,” he said.
He reminded voters then, that Pakatan Harapan (PH) made all its promises merely to pinch votes and said that they were the No. 1 enemy of Chinese education.
Regarding the Kapayan constituency and constituents, Goh said that the population consists of 49 percent Chinese, 41 percent indigenous folks and eight percent Malays from Peninsular Malaysia.
And with regard to religion, about 33 percent of the population embraced Christianity, while 45 percent were Buddhists and 15 percent, Muslims.
“Since we began working four years ago, I believe that we have won the trust of the people there. I am very confident that more than 60 percent (of the population) would favour me as their next ADUN,” saidGoh.
However, he is wary of the Chinese community, whom he said warmed up slowly and had only started to assess the situation recently.
“I hope they will not look at the macro issue alone but on who the candidate is,” he said.
He also reminded that DAP, who would be placing social activist and former SUHAKAM Commissioner, Jannie Lasimbang, as their candidate, had allegedly embraced Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, the former Prime Minister who is not popular amongst many Sabahans and Sarawakians.
“The choice for us is either Mahathir or Najib (for Prime Minister). If Pakatan Harapan which has been treated very badly by Mahathir for 22 years can forgive him, I don’t see why Najib cannot be given a chance since he never made any bad move against the Chinese community and Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
Concerning his challenger from DAP, Jannie,Goh described her as having the privilege to get women to support her.
“Nevertheless, MCA will win the hearts of the women voters,” he promised.
He added that Jannie would also be overshadowed by Edwin’s and DAP Sabah’s delivery failure in the past.
“She will have to carry that burden on her shoulder,” he said.