JOHARI: 61,000 VOTERS ARE KINGMAKERS
Second finance minister not underestimating opponents
BARISAN Nasional’s Titiwangsa parliamentary seat candidate Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani went “full throttle” to kick-start his campaign by meeting people in the constituency.
Starting his day early at 7.15am, Johari, who is also the incumbent, went to Kampung Baru first before heading for the market and hawker stalls in Jalan Wirawati Kampung Pandan about 9am.
The friendly smiles and chatter from the people showed that the second finance minister was no stranger in Kampung Pandan.
He then returned to Kampung Baru for two other programmes there.
Johari, who is Titiwangsa Umno chief, said it would not be easy to defend the seat this time around as he only won with a majority of 866 votes.
He said he would not underestimate the three-cornered fight that he was facing from Federal Territory Pas commissioner Mohamad Noor Mohamad and PKR candidate Rina Harun.
He said nothing was assured even though he had worked hard to win the hearts of voters for the past five years.
“During the 13th General Election, I was very confident based on my work at Titiwangsa for three years. But, the results came as a blow to me since I almost lost the seat.
“My friend, Datuk Seri Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin, also lost his seat, while the other parliamentary seat in Kuala Lumpur that BN won, the Setiawangsa seat, also saw a drastic reduction in votes.
“Anything is possible here, but I hope people do not vote based on their sentiments and emotions,” said Johari.
He said among his strategy for the past five years was to reduce at least 30 per cent of the slum areas in Kampung Pandan to almost zero, increase the number of women entrepreneurs and solve the issues of the residents and vendors in Kampung Baru, Kampung Pandan and Kampung Keramat.
“All the 61,000 voters in Titiwangsa are ‘kingmakers’, including the 21 per cent of young voters and around 8,000 first-time voters. This is the reason I told the BN machinery not to take this lightly. There is no such thing as a sure win.”