By Lim Kit Siang, MP for Gelang Patah

I refer to the Malaysian Insider’s report today, quoting the Gerakan President and Barisan Nasional Candidate for Teluk Intan, Mah Siew Keong, after his walkabout at the Teluk Intan market this morning, calling on the DAP to “stop toying with voters’ feelings” in the Teluk Intan by-election.

Mah accused me of “manipulating the emotions of voters” when I said that the DAP was an “underdog” in the by-election on May 31 and that Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud’s chances in the by-election on May 31 was 40% as compared to 60% for Mah.

Mah said he laughed when he read my forecast, claiming that it was impossible DAP to lack confidence when the majority of votes the party received in the 13th general election was more than 7,000 votes.

He said:

“How can a party which won by 7,000 votes say that their chances only stood at 40

“DAP always plays on the emotions of voters by portraying itself as the underdog. There is still sympathy for the former elected representative Seah Leong Peng.”

Let me assure Mah, whom I met at the Teluk Intan market this morning when the two candidates carried out walkabouts this morning, that far from “toying with voters’ feelings”, I am very worried that Dyana will lose considerable Chinese votes with the propaganda that Chinese voters should vote Chinese and not a Malay candidate.

I have been accused of taking the support of the Chinese voters in Teluk Intan for granted. Far from it, the entire DAP/Pakatan Rakyat election machinery is going all out to ensure that we can secure every vote, whether Chinese, Malay or Indian, in the by-election and more.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat would like to see Dyana maintaining the level of Chinese voter support that we received in the general elections last May.

This is why I have parked myself in Teluk Intan for the past three days and I have never campaigned so intensively for a by-election in my 48 years in politics as in the Teluk Intan by-election.

My assessment that the DAP is an “underdog” in the Teluk Intan by-election was made on Nomination Day – two days ago on May 19.

In the past three days, I have been quite overwhelmed by some of the responses of the voters during Dyana’s constituency visits in various parts of Teluk Intan as well as in the ‘ceramahs’ for the past two nights after nominations, raising our chances from 40% on Sunday.

But clearly, if Dyana is to win on May 31, she has still a long way to go although she would have won hands down, even today, if the netizens on social media or Internet could vote and decide on her candidacy.

Dyana can only win on May 31 if the voters of Teluk Intan are prepared for the second time to “write history and create a miracle”, crush the old politics of race and raise a political whirlwind for change in the country for justice, freedom and good governance by voting resoundingly for DAP/PR candidate, Dyana on May 31.