CoFfEE witH PUNithAN

ukit Selambau Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk S. Ganesan said he would like to emulate US President Barrack Obama's ability to work for all races in his country.

He also urged the people of Bukit Selambau to follow in his footsteps to try and raise the living standards.

"I want to be Malaysia's Obama to safeguard the welfare of all the races and become an idol for the community, because despite being born in a very poor family, I have managed to succeed in life through education.

"And since I come from a poor background, I can readily understand the difficulties faced by the poor," he told reporters after visiting SJK (T) Ladang Sungai Getah, together with Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein here today.

"I would also like to help develop Bukit Selambau so that the living standard of the people here will improve and promise a better quality of living for the younger generation."

He urged the people of Bukit Selambau to remain calm and composed on polling day (April 7), because there was a large number of candidates vying for the post.

Meanwhile, Hishammuddin, who is also the Umno vice president, believes the opposition would retort to various false accusations and try to exploit racial sentiments to discredit BN and confuse the people during their campaign.

"They will allege that BN uses phantom voters to win but when they win, there will not be such issues raised. Whichever seat that they win, there will be no phantom voters issue but if they lost a seat, then they will say there were phantom voters.

"Even when the opposition won five states, BN did not accuse them of using phantom votes," he told reporters after handing over RM210,000 for the SJK Tamil School in Sungai Getah, provided for under the second stimulus package.