Vivien Lee
KOTA KINABALU: Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) Vice-President, Datuk Pang Yuk Ming has been taken to task for pointing fingers at incumbent Api-Api Assemblywoman Datuk Christina Liew over the sudden increase of new non-Chinese voters in the electoral rolls such that Api-Api Constituency has become a mixed area.
Liew’s former Political Secretary Vivien Lee said the truth was that she (Liew) first detected the presence of dubious voters in the Api-Api electoral rolls as far back as 2013 before the 13th General Election.
“The electoral rolls were alleged to have contained some 4,200 new non-Chinese voters in 2013. It was the same scenario in 2018 before the 14th General Election. According to the Election Commission (SPR), Chinese voters in Api-Api then constituted 43.5pc of the total registered voters of 19,254 in the constituency in 2018 when the Barisan Nasional (BN) was in power. As a result, it is no longer a predominantly Chinese area.
“As a matter of fact, (Datuk) Liew had exposed the irregularities in a press conference on March 31, 2018 when she revealed the sharp rise of some 4,300 new non-Chinese voters in the Api-Api electoral rolls.
“All that was widely reported in the local and national media on April 1st, 2018. Given the abnormal phenomenon, (Datuk) Liew knew it was going to be a tough fight for her,” Lee said in a statement, Thursday.
She was responding to Pang who had asked Liew to clarify the matter in a recent statement, as to why Api-Api had been transformed into a mixed area.
Lee, who is also PKR Kota Kinabalu Branch Wanita Chief, stressed that as a former Merotai Assemblyman and former Assistant Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, who lives in the State capital, Pang should have known the true situation and who was actually responsible for the unprecedented increase of non-Chinese voters in Api-Api.
“Don’t you know who has the answer to your interesting question? Why don’t you query the right person who was behind the relocation of non-Chinese voters to Api-Api? Have you forgotten that BN was the Government during that period while Liew was in the Opposition?
“Your interest out of the blue and pointing fingers at the incumbent Api-Api Assemblywoman reflects your ignorance of the constituency’s voter demographics by race,” she pointed out.
In conclusion, Lee hoped that Pang would do his homework in future before opening his mouth to make baseless accusations against Liew.
“Don’t bark up the wrong tree. Your action will only jeopardise your image as you attempt to ‘parachute’ from Merotai to Api-Api,” she
added.
