BN candidate reaches out to Chinese voters in Mandarin

SEMENYIH POLLS | A video featuring BN candidate for Semenyih Zakaria Hanafi attempting to speak in Mandarin was uploaded to social media two days ago.

In the short clip, Zakaria tells Chinese voters to support him for check and balance so that he can monitor the Pakatan Harapan government.

"(My) friends in Semenyih, how are you? I am Zakaria, I know that you face lots of issues. I want to help you resolve the problems.

"We want all the promises fulfilled, we don't want to be cheated.

"Please give me a chance to keep the government in check, (so we will) no longer be cheated. Promises should be fulfilled and (they should) walk the talk," he said.

The video was published on MCA's social media platform on Feb 21 and has close to 8,000 views as of 3pm today.

"Even though his speech is not right and hard to understand, he is still trying to read the 'han yu pin yin' (romanised system for the Chinese language)," the post read.

The video also features some Chinese voters' views and hopes for their representative.

One constituent said the voters should choose a candidate who is willing to serve the locals instead of a representative who never shows up in the constituency.

The Semenyih by-election was announced following the demise of Harapan state assemblyperson Bakhtiar Mohd Nor.

The seat will see a four-cornered fight between Zakaria, Harapan's Muhammad Aiman Zainali, PSM's Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul and independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng.

A Merdeka Center survey showed that 95 percent of the Chinese voted for Harapan, compared with only 20 to 30 percent for Malays in the 2018 general election.

There are 23 polling districts in the Malay-majority state constituency, of which three are Chinese-majority seats.

Kampung Bahru Semenyih, the biggest Chinese-majority polling district in Semenyih, has 3,200 voters, 83 percent of whom are Chinese. Close to 81 percent of the voters supported Harapan in GE14.

This followed by Tarun polling district - a 64 percent Chinese-majority area. About 62 percent of the voters in Tarun voted for Harapan in GE14.

A Malaysiakini report on Chinese voters showed they were divided as to whom to vote for.