Prime Minister Najib Razak made a historical third visit to the small town of Sibu in a span of two weeks, only to be met by a less than stellar reception by the locals.

His lightning four-hour visit saw him flying through three locations to address two areas of concern ahead of tomorrow's parliamentary by-election - the Chinese and Melanau votes.

Arriving in Sibu at around 7.30pm as scheduled, Najib avoided a potentially embarrassing situation at his first stop at Rejang Park - a DAP stronghold in the outskirts of town.

sibu by election 120510 najib at temple possession 1 Upon arrival, he and his entourage were met with the sight of a small and uninterested crowd, numbering no more than 500 people.

The group ended up leaving the area. Some officials on duty quietly said that they wanted to wait for the crowd to build before Najib would step out of the car.

Only after what looked like a large group of people from outside of Rejang Park, including a sizeable number of SUPP members, had come in to beef up the crowd did the premier decide to make his grand entrance at around 8pm.

Even then, his presence did little to change the dour mood of the mostly Chinese crowd that had since grown to about 1,000-strong.

It was obvious that the only people cheering him when he spoke were the VIPs seated at the front of the crowd and the SUPP late arrivals at the rear.

"BN is the government that speaks one language to the people of Sibu. I want to prove to you its alright to have some problems or some unhappiness but this is a new beginning because we are listening to you," he said conceding the fact that BN is not too popular among the Chinese voters.

‘I’ll sign the cheque on Monday’

The best response from the crowd came when Najib promised to sign a cheque for RM5 million for flood mitigation in Rejang Park, provided Sibu voters "deliver" him a win for BN's candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew.

"Let's make a deal. If you deliver me Robert Lau Jr on Sunday, I will sign the cheque on Monday," he said.

Najib's disclaimer didn't seem to go down well with the majority of those present, while the late-comers cheered him on.

The prime minister didn't stay long however, speeding off to his next stop at the Sibu Gateway to join some 3,000 Sibu locals at a concert and meet-the-people session.

There, Najib enjoyed a much better reception from the majority Melanau/Malay crowd.

Speaking mostly in Malay, he told them that no matter what the opposition says, BN is still the only one that can help pull Sibu out of the backwaters.

Here, the crowd gave Najib a more spirited response as he capped his speech by cheering "Satu Malaysia" (1Malaysia) and "Hidup Barisan" (Long Live Barisan).

He stayed back a bit longer here to give his wife Rosmah Mansor the pleasure of singing two songs, including a duet with local celebrity Jamal Abdillah before sprinting to his last stop at Kg Hilir and flying back to Kuala Lumpur just before midnight.