1MDB issue is DAP’s strategy to bring down BN: Liew

(Berita Daily) – DAP lawmaker Liew Chin Tong believes that the monetary scandal of 1MDB has resonated well in the rural as well as the urban localities of the country.

In fact, the Kluang MP and party strategist has an inclination that most average Malaysians comprehended what the 1MDB scandal was about, including the rural inhabitants who do not enjoy good internet connectivity.

It is now the question of whether they choose to accept the consequences of the 1MDB fallout or they prefer to ignore it.

The country has been slapped with other scandals which have come to engross the people but it left the ruling coalition BN unhinged.

“If you ask me, most Malaysians know what this 1MDB is about. It has far reaching consequences. It will go on to disrupt the political and socio–economic aspects as long as there is no proper closure to it,” he said.

Therefore, DAP supports the move to position the 1MDB as the centerpiece of the Opposition’s strategy against BN, Liew said in an interview here.

He also rubbished the notion that the scandal does not enjoy traction in the rural areas, saying the rural areas have begun to dissipate in line with the country’s urbanisation pace, which was also triggered by better connectivity.

To this, 60% of what were previously defined as rural has become semi–urban, and with the expansion of the Klang Valley as an example, together with the northern region of Penang and Johor down south, he noted.

Up in the east coast states, Kelantan and Terengganu as well as Pahang remained quite entrenched with their rural sense of living, but their young are all working elsewhere, Liew pointed out.

And this included the young descendants of the elderly Felda scheme settlers.

They are registered voters in their home towns, but most of them spent their working life in urban localities where the job creation is more evident, he added.

He cited that 50% of the young population in Kelantan worked in the Klang Valley, but they return home to vote, and enjoy the leverages of influencing their parents about what is transpiring within the country.

While, there are signs of an improving economy, Liew believed that the ambers of corruption that were left behind from the 1MDB scandal will continue to affect the country, especially when it has reached global proportions.

Liew’s contention comes amidst a debate on whether 1MDB is an effective tool to woo voters, especially those in the rural areas, due to the complexity of the alleged money laundering schemes and the involvement of foreign powers.

It is said that in the rural heartland, foreign reports about the 1MDB scandal tend to generate an impression that there was foreign intervention in the country.

In the Opposition–funded Invoke Centre for Policy Initiatives (Invoke)’s latest consensus, interest in scandals have subsided in the country and it recommended that more thrust be placed on addressing daily living issues.

“Bread and butter issues often tend to take precedence,” said Invoke coordinator Rafizi Ramli, the Pandan MP and PKR vice–president.

He suggested that people–centric issues should take dominance rather than over scandals which were allegedly committed by BN.