GEORGE TOWN, May 9th- Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today condemned MCA and Gerakan for being “childish” by petulantly closing down the parties’ service centres in retaliation to the devastating defeats in 13th general election.
A triumphant Lim, who had retain the Penang government, claimed such actions by MCA and Gerakan would not impress voters.
He claimed that not only the Chinese, but Indians and Malays have all dismissed both the two parties as irrelevant and made up their minds to reject Barisan Nasional.
MCA was left with seven parliamentary seats whilst Gerakan had only one parliamentary seat in the just concluded general election.
Lim said MCA and Gerakan had grossly underestimated the people’s yearning for change if they thought that closing down service centres or their offices in retaliation for losing the general elections can frighten the voters.
He claimed that DAP did not close down its offices or service centres but continued to struggle for the people even though the party lost so many general elections in the past.
“Such a reaction by Gerakan and MCA to losing in the general election is akin to a child throwing tantrum for not getting what he or she wants.
“If MCA and Gerakan can close down service centres, why has MCA and Gerakan not announced that they will close down completely?
“The people are sick and tired of these childish games,” claimed Lim in a e-statement posted in his blog.
He reiterated that Pakatan won 5.6 million votes compared to 5.2 million for BN, a clear lead of 386,000 votes.
He said Pakatan winning 51% of popular votes but only 40% parliamentary seats cried out for genuine polls reforms that respects the “one-man, one-vote” principle to save democracy.
He claimed Malaysians who voted by a clear majority for Pakatan over BN would see the results as perverse in that BN that lost the popular vote won government whilst Pakatan won the popular vote lost power.
“This is black becoming white and black becoming white,” said Lim.
Many political analysts have argued that “Chinese tsunami” helped Pakatan to retain Penang and Selangor, and win 89 federal seats though this call was rejected by Pakatan leaders who claimed that it was a Malaysian tsunami which delivered a major blow to BN.
Many analysts also said that majority Malays and Indians backed BN this time.
KS Balakrishnan, a political analyst with Universiti Malaya, said up to 60% Indians have voted for BN this time.
