Despite being dogged by controversy, Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik today expressed confidence in retaining his Beruas parliamentary seat in Perak.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) leader said he was also certain that the ruling front could capture the Pantai Remis state seat from DAP. The seat is located within the Beruas constituency.

"I feel very confident... and I am even very confident that we have a very good chance of getting back the state seat from DAP," he was quoted as saying in a Bernama report.

He disagreed with the predictions that the battle for the state seat would be close, saying BN has told the people the truth and the voters could see for themselves that the incumbent DAP representative has done nothing for the area.

DAP's Nga Kor Ming will be defending the seat against BN's Wong Chong Sang. In 1999, Nga polled in 9,896, or a majority of 2,447 votes, to defeat Wong, who bagged 7,449 votes.

Problem solved

As for his own woes, namely disgruntled Indian members who and vowed to campaign against him, Lim said: "I think the problem has been resolved... the Indian community knows that I was misquoted."

"Furthermore, I have done many things for the Indian community here," he added.

The members, who have also threatened to quit the party, claimed that the Chinese-majority Gerakan was sidelining other races.

Lim had later called them 'empty vessels' and this sparked another furore when a Tamil daily accused the Gerakan president of terming the whole Indian community as such.

The veteran politician then threatened legal action and the paper subsequently apologised .

Following this, short messaging service (SMS) messages began circulating urging Indian voters not to support Gerakan, prompting MIC president S Samy Vellu to come to its defence.

In the 1999 election, Lim won the Beruas seat with a 1,455-vote majority against Simon Yiew Teong Cheong of DAP. Lim garnered 14,256 votes while Yiew bagged 12,801.

This time he will be facing DAP newcomer and lawyer Nga Hock Cheh. Beruas has 42,173 voters, with the Chinese being the majority, at 54.54 per cent, Malay 32.06 per cent, Indians 13.26 per cent and others 0.14 per cent.

Scholarship fund

Two days ago, Lim, who is seeking his fifth term as the member of parliament there, told a gathering that he would set up a RM1 million scholarship fund for needy Indian children to further their studies.

He also pointed out that all the developments brought in for the betterment of the people in his constituency had been implemented by the BN.

"Whether it is by using the allocation by the government or through contribution from some people I knew. We used it to build schools, halls, temples and many more... I think we have served them well," he added.