Lau is ‘Alice in Lanang Wonderland’
SIBU: Alice Lau earns her ‘Alice in Wonderland' moniker after slaying the dragon in its lair in Lanang, a SUPP stronghold, at the just concluded election.
Lau garnered 26,613 votes against dragon Tiong Thai King's 17,983 in a straight fight.
The parliamentary constituency created in 1990 has for five terms been the bastion of BN-SUPP until Alice Lau Kiong Yieng rose on Sunday to wrest it with a whopping majority of 8,630 votes - a record win of sorts for the constituency.
Lau introduced herself as the first woman candidate to represent Lanang during the election campaign while Tiong described himself as a ‘spicier old ginger' with the leadership experience to continue to serve the people for the next five years.
The late Tieu Sung Seng first stood to represent BN- SUPP against DAP's Jason Wong Sing Nang when the constituency was created in 1990.
In 1995, Tiong took over from Tieu and won handsomely. He won again in subsequent elections in 1999, 2004 and 2008.
When Tiong first contested in 1995, he virtually sang his way into Parliament by singing a Chinese number called ‘ The Cicadas of Spring Season' in his nightly ceramah.
Since then, Tiong has been loved by his constituents and they affectionately called him ‘Ah Thai'.
In the 2008 general election, Tiong garnered 57.13 per cent of the votes against DAP David Wong's 42.87 per cent. Tiong garnered 19,476 votes against Wong's 14,612. Lanang is made up of the two state seats of Dudong and Bukit Assek.
In all of Tiong's four terms, the deciding factor for his victory was in Dudong because the rural voters threw their weight behind him. Not many voted for him in Bukit Assek.
In 2008, Tiong garnered 8,295 votes in Bukit Assek against David Wong's 8,606 votes - a difference of 311 votes in favour of Wong.
In the Sunday election, Lau soared to obtain 14,632 votes in Bukit Assek while Tiong only managed 4,758 votes. In Dudong, Tiong only managed to win with a reduced majority of 1,244 votes which was not enough to make up for the huge loss in Bukit Assek.