PH govt should focus more on economic development — Chong

KUCHING: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government should focus more on economic development and issues that cut across all races in terms of their welfare, following its defeat in the Semenyih byelection last Saturday.

Sarawak PH chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the results of the Semenyih state by-election should also serve as a wake-up call to PH nationwide.

“Although we have won federal power, nevertheless, our national leaders need to buck up and more effort has to be put by the PH government to honour its election manifesto,” Chong, who is also Sarawak DAP chairman, told a media conference after chairing the Sarawak DAP committee meeting here yesterday.

In the by-election last Saturday, Barisan Nasional (BN) recaptured the Semenyih state seat when its candidate, Zakaria Hanafi won the four cornered-contest with a majority of 1,914 votes.

Zakaria, 58, received 19,780 votes to defeat Pakatan Harapan ‘s (PH) candidate Muhammad Aiman Zainali, 30, who obtained 17,866 votes; Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul, 25, of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) (847 votes) and Independent candidate and community activist, Kuan Chee Heng, 56, (725 votes).

Chong said the harping of race issue in Malaysian politics as had occurred during the Semenyih by-election was also a dangerous trend that should be condoned.

On the agenda of the meeting, he said among the matters discussed was on the state PH coalition preparations for the coming state election which was due in 2021.

He said the groundwork entailed the assigning of elected representatives from the DAP and other PH component parties to take care of several rural areas in the state.

However, he said the details of its strategies to take on Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) was confidential and, as such, could not be divulged for the time being.

A secretariat would be set up to carry out joint events involving the four PH component parties in the state, namely DAP, PKR, Amanah and Bersatu as part of the groundwork, he added.

He said matters pertaining to candidates and seat negotiation among the PH coalition parties were not discussed at the meeting.

In the last state election, DAP won seven seats and PKR three seats. - Bernama