It’s no state or national referendum on BN, says MCA - Sun

TAIPING (March 29, 2009): The Bukit Gantang parliamentary by-election is not a state or national referendum on Barisan Nasional (BN), said MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat.

“It is a by-election and it will only be voted by the people in the constituency, therefore it cannot be seen as a referendum. It can only reflect the fundamental sentiment of the people as the local voters will make a decision to test the sentiments of the people.

“It is normal for the people to think that the by-election will act as a referendum to the prime minister-in-waiting (Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak).

However, we must understand that it is not because of one man that will determine if the people are supporting us or not,” he told reporters at the by-election nomination centre.

“The people are facing a challenging time to make a living, they should decide whether they want to allow the never-ending fight between political parties to continue or choose to overcome living difficulties.

“I think it is time for the people to do the sum and see how many things have been implemented by the PR government, when it was in power as a policy approved is different from a policy implemented.

Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said the by-election would be a “hard battle” and BN should not take it lightly although it has 52 years of experience as the ruling party in the country.

“Although there are still a lot of weaknesses in the coalition that needs to be rectified, the PR government (in Perak) which only governed for a year, had shown all the weaknesses that it has been criticising BN for decades.

“I feel that the people must be more objective when assessing their choices. With the new BN leadership in place, the people should give the new team some time to reconstruct, as well as to reform and we will also have to explain more to the people on what we want to change.

“We need to change from the way we fight corruption, reform the judicial system, overcome public safety problems and the economic crisis and we need more time to see the results as the reform has only being put in place after the general election last year,” he added.