No backdoor for Mah

PETALING JAYA: Gerakan president Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong says he will not accept any arrangement to appoint him a senator as a means to make him a Cabinet minister should he lose in the 14th general election (GE14).
He said if, after all these years of serving the constituency of Teluk Intan, including securing development projects, rendering assistance to the poor, the elderly, single mothers and underprivileged families, he still cannot win enough support in GE14, he would have to accept the electorate's decision.
Speaking to Sin Chew Daily on Wednesday, the plantation industries and commodities minister recalled that in the run-up to the Teluk Intan by-election, he also said he would not accept a minister's post by virtue of being a senator should he fail to secure a victory.
"I know the Opposition will say, 'if Mah Siew Keong loses, he can use the backdoor, by becoming a senator and then a minister', so that the people will vote for its candidate (without fear of losing a minister).
"But I will not do that," he said.
Mah said he expects to be challenged by DAP MP for Taiping Nga Kor Ming.
Lamenting that it is hard for Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates to win seats with Malays making up less than 50% of the electorate, he said it will be a tough fight for him in Teluk Intan for which Chinese constitute the majority of the electorate with 42%, followed by Malays at 38% and Indian, with about 20%.
On the suggestion by some netizens that eliminating Mah in the election is as good as "killing off" Gerakan, Mah admitted that a loss in Teluk Intan will indeed affect the party but it will definitely not disappear.
In GE13, DAP's Seah Leong Peng defeated Mah by a majority of 7,313 votes.
However, in the Teluk Intan by-election, held in May 2014 following Seah's death, Mah defeated DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud with a majority of 238 votes.