The Chinese, who form nearly a third of the voters for next Saturday's state election, are having a tough time deciding whether to support the government or opposition, said a community leader.

Pemanca Ko Wai Neng for Kuching City said despite this, he personally believed the community should back BN.

"This election is very important from the perspective of the whole nation. The Chinese population in the country is only 23 percent, that means if we want to improve the standing and look after the interest of the Chinese in the government, we have to be inside the government and the BN is the government," Ko told Bernama.

The Pemanca is the second highest-ranked community leader after the Temenggong, followed by the Penghulu and Kapitan.

Ko is treasurer of the Kuching Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and Industry, secretary-general of the Kuching Samarahan Federation of Chinese Associations and a board member of three Chinese schools.

In 2006, the Chinese component of the state BN coalition, the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP), won only 11 of 19 seats contested, losing six Chinese-dominated seats to the DAP.

The DAP has raised their stakes to challenge the SUPP in 15 of the 19 seats to be contested again by SUPP.

"Actually, I think the Chinese are facing a tough time in making a decision, they have to consider very carefully and make a very wise decision. Malaysians have a very stable life, not like other countries such as the Middle East, where there is a lot of civil wars.

"The opposition is holding many ceramahs, they can say anything but they are not the government. But when the government says something, it has to fulfill it," Ko added.

Ko said the Chinese and all the different races had worked together to lay the foundation of the country and in the past 50 years, there had been different leaders with different mindsets with different policies.

"The Prime Minister is a leader who really wants change," Ko said of Najib Abdul Razak whom he met again over tea on Thursday when the prime minister visited Kuching.

Significant changes

Kuching-born and bred, Ko, who is in his 60s, said meetings between the Chinese community representatives and state and federal leaders had helped both sides to increase mutual understanding and the discussions had ended positively.

Ko said one of the significant changes from the government was resolving the citizenship woes especially of elderly folks.

"It used to be very difficult especially for those who were born in China. Last year, we collected hundreds of applications from Kuching and forwarded them to Putrajaya. There were also several hundreds from Miri and Sibu, I believe the total was over 1,000," he added.

The state goverment too had also approved a 2,000 hectare site in Kapit to be developed as a way to raise funds for the 14 independent Chinese schools in Sarawak.

Ko said another education issue for the Chinese community was to get government recognition for the Unified Education Certificate (UEC) issued from Chinese private secondary schools for holders to apply for entry into Malaysian public universities and the government service.

- Bernama