A Sunday drive through P59

Anak Bangsa Malaysia

I love Taiping … the food, the people, the love in the air, even with the constant rain. I hate Kamunting … strange that two areas so close together conjure such opposite emotions.

I was in Taiping on a good friend's invitation … had the unfortunate chance of driving pass Kamunting in heavy rain with RPK of Malaysia Today by my side … constantly babbling away until it drove me stark raving mad. No wonder they freed him from Kamunting … the guards must have suffered more than they could endure from he who had the gift of the gab … they probably begged the government to send him home or face the risk of mass resignations of prison guards.

Nevertheless, it was a good night of laughter and fun … though the music was not really my cup of tea … good company and good food more than made up for it … I had earlier deposited RPK in town so that he could look up that doctor with the tattoo on her ankle … according to RPK he had promised to buy her a drink the next time he was in town … don’t know, though, if he managed to find her because he wouldn’t say.

The next morning, we decided, after some good Taiping food, to drive back along the old road back south … it will give us an opportunity to visit some of the areas in the "P59 – Bukit Gantang" Parliamentary seat with by-elections coming up in April … it will also mean we don't have to take the Kamunting road back out to the North-South Expressway and therefore suffer another bout of an overdose of RPK-lamenting … all in all, a good idea.

We had earlier received rumours that some interesting banners had been put up in recent days … hopefully the rain would hold up long enough for us to spot them.

On the way out of Taiping town on Simpang Road, we spotted the Gerakan building, already flying BN flags … fair enough … signs of Gerakan being ready to support UMNO's campaign. They have got not much else to do anyway, I guess.

5km down the road, approaching the Simpang area (the commercial district of P59), the BN and UMNO flags have lined up the road dividers. By-election money had started rolling early here … too early, if you strictly follow the rules of the Election Commission. Maybe BN and UMNO don't know the rules … maybe the EC forgot to enforce them … maybe. PKR offices, on the other hand, only had their flags on the buildings or in the area directly in front of their offices. Somebody read the rules.

Straight across the main Simpang cross-junction (left towards Kuala Kangsar and right towards Butterworth) is Matang area, also part of P59. More BN and UMNO flags spotted along the kampung main road. Interesting to note that PAS has read the EC rules too … as the flags and banners were, again, confined to only in front of their office and operation buildings.

Tracking back towards the road to Kuala Kangsar, we entered the DUN area of Changkat Jering … the one Osman Jailu had supposedly been elected to represent.

Simpang area gave us the feeling of mixed race. Changkat Jaring area is the classic cluster of Malay kampung – PAS country.

At every PAS "Pusat Tabiah" or "Rumah Operasi", the PAS flags, banners and posters stood loud and proud.

Only at the Changkat Jering main junction … a certain "Dewan Bunga Raya Changkat Jering" stood with BN flags all around it. … again, does the dewan belong to the people or BN? Why does BN get to fly their flags there early???

There might be a banner competition among the kampung folks here too, judging from the number of homemade ones hung along the roads. If I were a judge, Kampung Cheh wins with their "Maaf, Kampung kami suma undi PAS". Just to show how deep PAS is in the folks' heart, even UMNO's signboards are in PAS green

At the junction of Changkat Ibol and Kepala Bukit, we finally spotted the infamous banners – six of them in a row … well, well, well … see the pix below for yourselves and have a good laugh.

Satisfied, we traced back towards the main Bukit Gantang road towards the "royal town" of Kuala Kangsar to visit old friends, schools … actually more for the roti, kaya and kopi … RPK wanted to show me MCKK, the school he went to in the 1960s.

More banners spotted along the way through Kampung Pauh, Jelutong, up to Bukit Berapit.

Now … we did not cover the whole P59 area on this drive, maybe only 60-70% of the main kampung roads. But some conclusions can be made:

– PAS has a clear majority of the areas covered. The people seemed happy in their daily lives but angry with BN, especially in Changkat Jering … the posters speak for themselves.

– It shall be mostly PAS vs. UMNO battlegrounds

– Simpang area is the most secular area, one that will see PPP, MIC, MCA, Gerakan, PKR and DAP involved in supporting their comrades, if they can be bothered … so far, nothing (except Gerakan) … maybe they are just following the rules.

We were happy to rekindle our wet romance with Taiping, and happy to make new friends in P59 Bukit Gantang and enjoy their stories and humour.

See you on 28th March.