Former comrades head for showdown
Goh and Khoo to clash for prized Kota Melaka seat
MELAKA: They were comrades in arms but following a falling-out, they are set to clash for the prized Kota Melaka seat come May 9.
An intense battle is shaping up between former Melaka DAP chairman Goh Leong San and state party stalwart Khoo Poay Tiong.
DAP is expected to announce Khoo, who is the state liaison committee secretary, as the candidate for the parliamentary seat today.
Goh, after a decade of bad blood with DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, could no longer see eye to eye with Khoo.
Khoo is a protege of Guan Eng and has earned his trust to take on Goh, the incumbent Duyong assemblyman.
Things reached boiling point last February when Goh, together with Kota Melaka MP Sim Tong Him, Bachang assemblyman Lim Jak Wong and Kesidang assemblyman Chin Choong Seong quit the party.
Since then, talk has been rife that the ex-DAP quartet will return to “take revenge” against their former party.
In a press conference yesterday, Sim said the decision to contest as independents was not an “act of vengeance” but to give voters an “alternative choice” apart from Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan.
Besides Kota Melaka, Goh will stand in Kesidang.
Lim will go for Ayer Keroh while Chin will contest in Banda Hilir, currently held by state DAP chairman Tey Kok Kiew.
Kota Melaka is a Chinese-majority seat, almost 60% out of the estimated 100,000 registered voters.
It will be a keen contest as both Goh and Khoo are expected to resort to a “mudslinging” campaign.
Barisan is expected to field a young lawyer, Eric Choo Wei Sern, making it one of the multi-cornered fights in this election.
On March 8 last year, Goh dropped a bombshell at the Melaka state assembly, alleging two aides of opposition assemblymen were involved in corruption and intimidation cases.
Following this, a political aide and a businessman were charged on Sept 8 for 11 counts of cheating, criminal breach of trust and falsifying documents over a botched land deal in Kelantan, amounting to nearly RM2mil.
Khoo has denied any links to the land transaction and accused Goh of attempting to tarnish his image.