Guan Eng: DAP grassroots unhappy but still committed to Harapan win

TG PIAI POLLS | UPDATED | Lim Guan Eng has admitted that there is unhappiness among the DAP grassroots about campaigning for a Bersatu candidate in the Tanjung Piai by-election but said that all Pakatan Harapan component parties have to "work together to win together".

"We don't deny that there is unhappiness but I think we all stress that there is a need to work together to win together," said Lim, the party's secretary-general.

"Remember that any loss for Pakatan Harapan is also a loss for each individual party, so it is important that we have to work towards our objective," he told a press conference at the Selangor DAP convention held in Petaling Jaya today.

The alternative is for the opposition to win and that would lead to more racism and religious extremism, he said.

"It also gives encouragement to the deep state to be able to establish a backdoor government that betrays the mandate of the people in the last general election," said Lim, who is also Finance Minister.

He acknowledged that the unhappiness is a greater challenge as it is coming from within.

However, he believes that with the wisdom of the Harapan leaders, they can overcome this problem progressively.

Harapan is fielding Bersatu candidate Karmaine Sardini in the Tanjung Piai by-election against BN's MCA candidate Wee Jeck Seng. Polling day is on Nov 16.

When asked about MCA drawing large crowds in Tanjung Piai, Lim said the media tends to talk about crowd sizes in relative terms.

"I think it is also a question of expectations, so when MCA draws a crowd size that is maybe similar or slightly smaller than us, they put it as - 'Oh that is a massive crowd', but when we draw a similar size crowd, they say that it is a smaller crowd.

"Maybe you want to talk about it in relative terms, but that is up to the media," he said.

However, he said that it is imperative for Harapan to go to the ground and explain to the people why it is important to support them.

"(It is important to support Harapan) to ensure that the development policies of (Tanjung Piai incumbent) Md Farid Md Rafik can be continued and that we can have a government that represents everyone, not just one race, one religion or one group," Lim said.