I am stunned to read Gan Ping Sieu’s statement regarding election campaign billboard. Gan’s statement demonstrated his arrogance as a lawyer to interpret law arbitrarily to misguide the public over the matter. I urge him to check with his fellow MCA member, Dr Hou Kok Chung who contested in last general election in Kluang, if the latter had made the payment also.
First of all, it is stated clearly in the local council by-laws (undang-undang kecil) that permit should be issued upon payment of RM50 for the election campaign billboard. While other local councils have the same set of law, they do not interpret the law as how Kluang municipal council and Gan Ping Sieu did.
Therefore, it is unheard of that candidate must pay RM50 per billboard, let alone the RM1000 deposit for every billboard. Gan Ping Sieu last contested in 2008. He should show his payment receipt from that period to prove his words.
Secondly, the BN-MCA candidates for Kluang claimed that they had made the payment in April 2018. However, the truth is, nobody has ever informed Pakatan Harapan on making such payment and this new rule by the local council until the moment when we wanted to get a permit reference number from the Kluang municipal council one day before nomination day.
Under election law, every candidate has to submit the deposit payment receipt for publicity materials (RM5000 for parliamentary seat, RM3000 for state seat) to the local council and pay another RM50 to get the permit reference number. While most of the candidates in other seats went through this process relatively smoothly, the three Pakatan Harapan candidates in Kluang have been facing various hassles just to get the permit number.
When my election agent first encountered this and questioned the rationale to charge another huge sum of payment, we received no response from the authority. While we appreciate the kind assistance given to us by the front desk officer; the real decision makers in the local council are making life difficult for everyone.
More importantly, we were only informed at 2:10pm on 3 May that the RM21,000 payment has to be made by 2:30pm or we would risk our billboards being taken down. If Kluang municipal council make this new law long ago, they should have come forward to explain from the day when our election agents enquired. Yet, there was no response.
BN Mengkibol candidate, Chin Sim Lai was the deputy party whip in Kluang municipal council, he should answer to the public, when did the council make this new law? Most importantly, this episode has shown that Gan Ping Sieu is using local council as a political tool in his general election campaign.