KUALA LANGAT, 2 Nov: Support from the rural communities is increasingly leaning towards Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and this will be more pronounced in the next General Election (GE).
Former Chief Minister of Selangor, Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib said that this confidence is based on the achievement in the last GE-13, when PR achieved the popular vote of 53 percent compared to BN which only obtained 47 percent.
“According to the percentage of BN’s votes, BN should have lost. Out of 100 people, 53 voted for Pakatan Rakyat (PR). This is strange because our system is linked with seats.
“If 145,000 people vote for the Kapar Parliamentary seat (one seat goes to PR). If 10,000 people vote for a Parliamentary seat in Sarawak, one seat goes to BN,” Muhammad said during the ‘Apa Khabar Orang Kampung’ (How Are You Village People) programme in Dewan Putra here in Kampung Sawah, Banting.
Muhammad said that the challenges faced by Pakatan Rakyat in rural areas are restraints, restrictions and media manipulation.
He said that the thinking of people in rural areas is synonymous with decades of information championed by Umno through newspapers and television.
“Previously, when I was campaigning for the Sungai Limau State Legislative Assembly seat, my face was on TV every day. However, now, when I look through newspapers, there is not even one picture of me because I’m in PAS.
“But when I talk about Nik Aziz, faces turn fierce. Every day, on TV1, TV2, TV3, even until TV100 till TV200, all (the faces shown) belong to Umno. Representatives such as Hasnul (Assemblyman for Morib) will never come out,” he said.