Then, with hardly any machinery or party members to serve as volunteers, Pang was prepared to lose the contest for the Bekok state seat, which is part of the Labis parliamentary constituency.
Labis was a MCA stronghold where former party president Dr Ling Liong Sik won by a landslide that year.
Ling served three terms as Labis’ MP while the present incumbent, Chua Tee Yong, is a two-term MP.
“In 1990, I was told by the party to contest in Bekok against MCA’s Lim Si Cheng. I wasn’t ready, I didn’t have enough experience.
“I had no machinery, but the party leadership said, ‘Just put your name there. You will surely lose but rather than giving a walkover, at least we put a name there.’
“We didn’t even have a proper DAP branch in Labis. We held meetings under a tree. Yet I won that year. I couldn’t believe it,” said Pang in an interview at the Labis DAP operations centre.
“I was at one of the counting centres when they announced the results. I was really shocked.
“Everyone was cheering and applauding, but I was too shocked to react.
“Some of the DAP members came, they pulled me out of the crowd and asked me what was I doing there, that I should be celebrating,” he said.
But celebrating was not something the opposition could freely do, as Pang, 61, recalled the government back then did not tolerate the opposition and he feared being arrested.
Pang said they drove about an hour out of the town, and hid there for a few hours until the excitement died down.
“There was the ISA (Internal Security Act 1960) then, so it was risky to be seen celebrating. We could have been perceived as causing trouble,” he said.
He said the party leaders even called for a meeting to warn us of possible arrests, adding he couldn’t sleep for the next few days.
“At that point, I was thinking, what did I get myself into? I wasn’t supposed to win.
“But at the same time, it was a good feeling to know that I won against a strong machinery, against Ling Liong Sik’s team,” he said.
He subsequently contested in 1999 for the Maharani state seat, 2004 for Jementah, 2008 for both the Segamat parliamentary seat and Jementah state seat before he rested in 2013.
Pang was one of the youngest candidates in the 1990 election.
“It was quite difficult to voice my opinions during the state assembly meetings. I was young, the Umno assemblymen would always tell me to sit down.
“‘You small boy, sit down’, they would tell me. But being known as a lawyer who would never give up, I spoke up at every meeting. Eventually I was able to tell them off over issues that they overlooked. I once told the speaker off too,” he said.
During his time as an assemblyman, the House did not limit the number of questions each member could ask. Thus, in his single term, he recorded 600 questions in five years.
In 2013, Pang was prepared to contest in the Segamat parliamentary seat but at the eleventh hour had to make way for PKR’s Chua Jui Ming.
After a five-year break, he has once again been propelled into the limelight after Skudai incumbent Dr Boo Cheng Hau rejected the party’s decision to move to Labis, and the party came to him.
“So to those who say that I have been roped in from nowhere, it’s not true. I just rested from contesting for one term. My supporters are still strong, and have pledged their support for me.
“These are supporters who have followed me through every general election campaign. They are the same machinery team who have been with me in all of the elections.
“But having said that, I heard even the younger generation have heard of lawyer Pang,” he said with pride.
Labis is a mixed seat with 44.96% Chinese, 37.98% Malay and 14.66% Indian voters, according to the latest electoral rolls.
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