ALOR SETAR, Nov 7 — Tan Chee Hiong is confident he can win back the Kedah parliamentary seat of Alor Setar for Barisan Nasional (BN) despite facing six other challengers in the 15th general election.
His confidence comes from being born and bred there. As a true blue Alor Setarian, Tan believes his knowledge of the town, its history and his dedication will appeal to Alor Setar voters.
His ambition is to turn the Kedah capital into a tourism and trading hub.
“There are 63 per cent Malays, 31.69 per cent Chinese which is roughly 33,000 people. If you look at the seven-cornered fight, five are Malays, two are Chinese.
“Though we cannot say for sure, the Chinese will vote Chinese or Malay will vote Malay, I believe the people will realise my party is not exclusive to one race.
“In addition I trust our grassroots and political machinery and that's where my confidence comes from, and I believe I can really win this seat,” he told reporters while going around the constituency today.
Tan said the BN machinery in Alor Setar is formidable. The coalition’s dominant party Umno alone has 18,000 members while his party MIC, has around 7,000 members.
“I'm not saying all of them will vote for me. There will be some swing votes but that is the challenge, bringing back or convincing them to vote for us.
“As for the other candidates, I am not concerned one bit about them. Never have. Voters here feel cheated. They feel the past 22 months were bad under the previous government.
“Now when I hit the ground, I hear the public’s concerns and they said the government aid and welfare money have all dried up. Adding to that, the lack of jobs, floods caused by the rivers overflowing and degrading public housing have caused havoc in Kedah,” he said.
Tan's opponents are Perikatan Nasional's Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamuddin, Datuk Mohamad Nuhairi Rahmat of Pejuang, Datuk Fadzil Hanafi from Warisan and Pakatan Harapan's Simon Ooi.
The independent candidates are former state Works Department director Datuk Nordin Yunus and former civil servant Sofan Feroza Md Yusup.
“The past two MPs here were either from Penang or Perak. So now I'm the first local boy to compete here and it's time we get someone who doesn't just look at a constituency as a ticket to Kuala Lumpur.
“Once they've booked their ticket, they will forget about the people. Because let's be honest, we hardly hear about the plight of the people of Alor Setar in Parliament,” Tan said.
This is the first time in election history that seven candidates are vying for the Alor Setar parliamentary seat. The previous high was four candidates in the 13th general election of 2013.
In the 14th general election four years ago, PH fielded Chan Ming Kai and won by a whopping 15,200-vote majority over his closest rival Muhammad Aminur Shafiq Mohamad Abduh from PAS.
