Monday March 10, 2008

Billi takes defeat in his stride

Despite garnering just 1,895 votes, independent candidate in the Kelana Jaya parliamentary seat, Billi Lim, felt the achievement was still reason to celebrate.

The ‘Lao Fu Tze’, as many people refer him to for his famous Master Q haircut, said the votes was more than 1,000% increase in votes from his last general election in 2004 where he contested in Bukit Bintang, receiving just 132 votes.

Undeterred: Billi pondering on his future.

“I’m excited to have beaten my Bukit Bintang vote count, by over 1,000 times! For me, this is most important,” said the effervescent Lim.

“No problem even if I’ve lost now. If you see it clearly, I'm actually losing in an entirely new area, so I take this as losing for the first time,” said Lim.

He however lost his deposit again this time as a minimum 7,000 votes is needed to have the deposit returned.

Despite this, he added that he would not hesitate to continue contesting in future general election.

“You see, I’m setting a legacy, which is to lead the way and I’ll have more time to prepare now. This election has been most exciting for me as I get to really go behind the scene to see how things work.”

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate Loh Gwo Burne won the seat with 30,298 votes over opponent Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Lee Hwa Beng who received 25,267 votes.

Loh said the win is just the start of things for him - where he would need to live up to the expectations of his voters to raise issues in Parliament.

For the Subang Jaya state seat, DAP’s Hannah Yeoh beat BN opponent Ong Chong Swen with a majority of 13,851. Yeoh garnered a total vote of 23,459 while Ong received 9,608 votes.

When contacted, Ong said it proves the voting process is transparent and democratic and that it's the rakyat's decision who they wish to vote for as their representative.

“I cannot say much except that I hope Hannah will do her best to serve the people.”

Yeoh said she never expected such a landslide win.

“The people of Subang Jaya have spoken through their votes today. The first thing we will do is to set up a DAP Subang Jaya branch and we have already a pro-tem committee consisting professionals to run this place.

“I wish to thank God, which otherwise this would not have happened. Also to my husband, campaign manager, and my team of volunteers.”

Yeoh said she would keep to her promise of remaining clean and that people are taking a serious stand now in their fight against corruption.

For the Seri Setia state seat, PKR greenhorn Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad beat BN candidate Datin Paduka Seripah Noli Syed Hussin who was defending her seat.

Nik Nazmi received 13,838 votes while Seripah Noli managed 10,975 votes.

“As a young candidate myself, this is the best result in so many years,” said the 26-year-old Nik Nazmi.

“I was working to win but prepared to lose, especially now that I'm up against big BN machinery.

“For me as a Muslim, being a leader is not a privilege but a responsibility,” he said.

News

Monday March 10, 2008

Billi takes defeat in his stride