“On the ground, we can see that the Malays are now more accepting of us. We can organise events in Malay villages now, something which we found hard to do before.

“In Parit, I heard almost 10,000 people turned up for Mahathir’s ceramah, which is huge for Parit,” the Kampar incumbent told FMT at an event here yesterday.

He added that the Malay sentiment in Kepayang was similar to that across the country.

“There is great discontent among them due to the rising cost of living.

“I have discovered that the people are not just angry at the government anymore, they have begun to hate it. Some of the hatred is so deeply rooted that they want a change in government.

“There is enough support for us to form the new state government. We need 60% of the popular vote for this, but support for Mahathir is good because the Malays know he will be prime minister if we win.”

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