PKR man uses Mandarin magic
Candidate surprises segamat locals by speaking to them in Chinese
SEGAMAT: There tend to be oohs and ahhs from listeners whenever R. Yuneswaran opens his mouth.
That’s because he speaks fluent Mandarin, having attended a Chinese school in Selangor from the age of seven to 12.
“I have been using Mandarin to speak to the Chinese community in Segamat,” said the PKR candidate.
Yuneswaran is in a four-cornered fight with Barisan Nasional’s Tan Sri M. Ramasamy, Perikatan Nasional’s P. Poobalan and Gerakan Tanah Air’s Syed Hairoul Faizey.
“Many people are surprised when I suddenly talk to them in Mandarin. To me, it is an advantage as I get to understand their problems and hopes better.
“I also feel people are more welcoming when I talk to them in their mother tongue, be it Mandarin, Tamil or Malay,” said the 35-yearold, who is the founder of an education consultancy company.
According to him, people are more inclined to have long chats with him after knowing that he can speak Mandarin.
In an interview, Yuneswaran said his younger sister could also converse in Mandarin fluently as they had attended the same school.
He added that he had been using his ability to speak in the three main languages in Malaysia to convince people to vote in this general election.
“A large number of the people in Segamat are senior citizens and most of their children are working elsewhere such as in Singapore.
“I told them to remind their children to vote in this election as this will determine the future we will have in the next five years,” he said.
He will also be posting videos in Mandarin, Tamil and Bahasa Malaysia, urging Malaysians to return home to vote.
In GE14, Datuk Seri Dr Edmund Santhara Kumar, who was then in PKR, won the seat with a 5,476-vote majority against MIC’S Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam and PAS’ Khairul Faizi Ahmad Kamil.