Padungan rep baffled why number of voters in Stampin constituency drop despite rising population

KUCHING: Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei is wondering why the number of voters in the Stampin parliamentary constituency is decreasing when the population is on the rise.

He even described this as an “unnatural phenomenon”, given that the number of voters in Stampin had not gone down in the past elections except this time.

“Stampin is not just a grey area but a very risky one for DAP ( Democratic Action Party) now because more than 10,000 voters have been moved from Stampin to Bandar Kuching.

“While the number of voters in Stampin decreases, the number of voters in Bandar Kuching has increased by 20,000. With the increasing population, the number of voters in Stampin still decreases, why?

“This is because a lot of opposition votes have been moved from Stampin to Bandar Kuching, paving way for Barisan Nasional ( BN) to win back Stampin,” he said at a DAP fund-raising dinner themed ‘New Deal New Hope’ here last Saturday.

Wong, who is DAP Socialist Youth Sarawak chairman, called upon Sarawakians to give the party’s candidate for Stampin Dr Kelvin Yii a chance to retain the seat for the opposition.

“Pakatan Harapan ( PH) cannot afford to lose any of the six seats. We do not need any mojo to change Malaysia, all we need is your effort to come out and vote rather than not casting your vote at all,” he said.

On PH chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, he said he “is not our only hope because the collaboration among PH coalitions matters”.

He said PH needed Dr Mahathir to shake up rural Malays in Peninsular Malaysia, which represented the stronghold of BN.

“Give PH five years and if we cannot do better or as promised in our election manifesto, you can always ditch PH. But if you give BN another five years, they will become more arrogant.

“I still remember ( Prime Minister Datuk Seri) Najib ( Tun Razak) say that the state BN victory in the 2016 election showed that Sarawakians understood the importance of GST ( Goods and Services Tax) and that’s why they voted for BN.

“If you vote for BN this election, Najib is going to say all Malaysians find GST acceptable and they are going to review the rate from six per cent upward,” he said.

Wong added that voters had nothing to lose if they voted for PH and give the opposition a chance to fulfil its election manifesto.

Meanwhile, Malaysian actress Lim Ching Miau, better known as Miau Miau, said voters in the country should not give up but continue to vote for the right coalition to see change.

The Penang-born 36-yearold said her heart went out to Sarawakians and Sabahans who got so little in terms of allocation from Putrajaya while all their resources had been utilised to develop Peninsular Malaysia.

“So you should not let your voice go unrecorded. We Malaysians should live to change and keep changing for the better. As a citizen, we should know what to do.

“As a West Malaysian myself, I thank East Malaysia because we took your resources. But what have you got?

“I am not taking sides here or showing my support for any coalition, all I ever want is for Malaysia to have a better future, be a better country for generations to come,” she added.