MIC veep says Indians won’t be ‘kingmakers’ in Pulai poll
JOHOR BARU, Aug 31 – Barisan Nasional (BN) component MIC does not expect the Indian community to be “kingmakers” in the Pulai parliamentary by-election in Johor next month, said party vice president Datuk M. Asojan.
He said one of the reasons was that it was a by-election and the Indian community in Pulai are mainly those from other states who work in Singapore.
Asojan said the number of Indian voters for the Pulai parliamentary constituency is significant at 12 per cent, involving 20,000 voters.
“The relevant composition, if we look at the voter turnout trend is around 60 per cent in last year’s Johor state election and 70 per cent in the recent 15th general election (GE15).
“In a by-election, normally a 60 per cent voter turnout is expected, where the targeted turn out for Indian voters will be at least 50 per cent.
“In this by-election many will not come out to vote as they believe that it will not influence the overall outcome,” he said after chairing a Johor Federation of Registered Indian Associations meeting at the Indian Chamber of Commerce Building in Larkin here today.
Asojan, a former Johor MIC chief, was commenting on whether Indian voters will determine the outcome in the Pulai parliamentary by-election.
The Pulai parliamentary constituency has a total of 167,108 voters. The Malays make up 44.17 per cent, Chinese 40.47 per cent and Indians 12.30 per cent.
The Simpang Jeram state constituency has a total of 28,193 voters, where the Malays are a majority with 53.42 per cent, followed by the Chinese at 43.32 per cent and Indians at 2.75 per cent.
On the coming two by-elections, Asojan said that the MIC president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran had reminded the party’s machinery in Pulai and Simpang Jeram to support the PH-BN unity coalition candidate.
“This is MIC’s commitment to the unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim,” he said.
Earlier, Asojan said the Indian community, especially MIC members, had agreed to support the political cooperation forged with the unity government as they believed in the promises made by Anwar, who is also the Pakatan Harapan chairman.
He said that Anwar had gave him a year to look at the problems and issues involving the Indian community in this country.
“Anwar assured us that the problems and issues related to the Indian community would be addressed after the one-year period,” he said.