Normal to be booed in politics – Larry Sng
KUCHING: Member of Parliament for Julau, Larry Sng, believes that being booed in politics is normal.
“Me being booed is just a very small matter. What is important is that the party members gave me their support and confidence to represent them at the central committee level (MPP). It is a great honour to represent Sarawak in the party and I thank everyone who gave me their support,” he said.
Larry said the contest for the MPP seat was intense and involved many qualified candidates from throughout Malaysia.
“At the end of the day, it was a tight race. Members had to choose only 20 out of 88 candidates, and the outcome between each candidate was only a matter of few hundred votes,” he said.
Larry laughed off the overture by Sarawak Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah for “becoming overnight sympathiser” of himself and Works Minister Baru Bian.
“I would like to ask ( Abdul) Karim, has he ever skipped any PBB party conference?”
When asked to explain why Dayak leaders were not getting their place in the MPP, Larry said only two Dayak candidates contested for a post in the central committee.
“Only four candidates from Sarawak contested the post of MPP, myself, Voon Shiak Ni, Ali Biju and Willie Mongin. Baru Bian and Jugah Muyang did not contest,” he said.
Out of the four who contested from Sarawak, only Larry is aligned to Rafi zi Ramli who was in a fight for the post of deputy president and eventual winner Datuk Seri Mohd Azmin Ali.
“I guess I was aligned to the right people, had the right strategy and I worked on the ground,” he said.
On the problem caused by the voting system, Larry admitted that the e-voting system also led to some candidates being overlooked in the MPP race.
“In the case of e-voting, many people didn’t know how to vote. So, the early numbers generally received higher votes. Like mine which was 11 and featured on the front page.
“When it came to number 50 or 60 plus, people sometimes just skipped,” he said.
Now that the election is over, I hope to work with all parties to make PKR stronger in the state,” he said.