Tough decisions in the rice bowl town of Sekinchan
Why has DAP skirted the hudud issue in the campaign? The reason is that Amanah also supports hudud law and DAP does not and cannot answer why it is still sitting with PAS in Selangor government.
Joceline Tan, The Star
SLEEPY Sekinchan has stirred to life the last few days.
There is a Chinese opera group in town and, no, we are not referring to the politicians who have flocked into town for the Sungai Besar by-election.
The opera is in honour of one of the local temple deities’ birthday. The air around the temple is filled with the smell of incense from giant joss-sticks lining the road and the hawker centre nearby has been doing a roaring business.
Sekinchan town is as Chinese as it gets and there seems to be a temple at every turn.
The other feature one sees all over town is Sekinchan assemblyman Ng Suee Lim. This DAP politician obviously understands advertising because his face is plastered on the welcome arches erected at all the strategic spots in this coastal town.
A giant billboard bearing his grinning face has also gone up at the town’s busiest intersection with the slogan “618 – Jom Balik Undi”.
As in all small towns in Malaysia, Sekinchan’s young people have left to find jobs and settled outside and the big question is whether they will come home to vote.
DAP is even arranging transport for those working in Singapore and Johor to return to vote on June 18.
Amanah’s Azhar Abdul Shukur is the Pakatan Harapan candidate who is up against Barisan Nasional’s Budiman Mohd Zohdi and PAS’ Dr Rani Osman.
But the way that Ng has been campaigning, it is as though he is the candidate. A great deal is at stake for DAP in this by-election because Amanah is widely perceived as a creature of DAP, formed to replace PAS in their coalition.
There is no way that Amanah can defeat the incumbent Barisan in this Malay heartland seat where Malays make up 70% of the voters but it needs to do better than PAS or else, the perception that Amanah is a party going nowhere will be irreversible.
As such, the by-election is basically a fight between Amanah and PAS.
It is also a proxy fight between DAP and PAS, with Amanah very much dependent on the Chinese votes.
Besides, as Rita Sim of the CENSE think-tank noted, the Amanah machinery is basically coming from DAP.
DAP was responsible for pushing PAS out of Pakatan Rakyat and the party is out to prove that it did the right thing. DAP leaders have ditched their usual red shirts for Amanah’s bright orange.
At one ceramah, DAP’s Ng said if Amanah does better than PAS, “we can celebrate with Carlsberg, Tiger and or kau (black dog or Guinness Stout)”.
DAP also needs to validate its support among the Chinese voters given the perception that the Chinese vote is starting to soften.
Chinese life and work here revolve around rice cultivation, fishing and the restaurant business. Every other eatery offers a seafood menu but it looks like the good stuff is exported overseas leaving the mediocre stuff to be sold at home.
The older restaurants have traditional names like Seng Guan or Hai Kang (river mouth) but the newer ones go by more optimistic names like Oceanlicious, Summer Resort and Restoran Wins.
But honestly, has the Chinese vote really softened or are the Chinese simply tired of the endless politicking?
There are four main Chinese enclaves in Sekinchan known as A chun (chun means village in Chinese), B chun, C chun and Hai Ka (by the sea).
There are some 9,000 votes there. A chun and C chun are reputed to be hardcore DAP areas. B chun and Hai Ka are said to harbour more mixed sentiments.
It has been a slow start for the DAP ceramah circuit in Sekinchan. Despite the presence of bright young MPs like Nurul Izzah Anwar (Lembah Pantai) and Liew Chin Tong (Kluang), the crowd has been desultory in terms of numbers and mood.
On a balmy Wednesday evening, a battery of Pakatan Harapan speakers managed to attract a crowd of barely 300, half of whom occupied the seats in the covered basketball court while the rest preferred to listen from outside, sitting atop their motorcycles.
The MCA ceramah a stone’s throw away drew barely 100 people. The MCA speaker was trying to tell his audience that it would be folly to support Amanah because it is no different from PAS, that it is an offshoot of PAS and that both support hudud law.
DAP leaders had, once upon a time, persuaded the Chinese that it was alright to support PAS and now, they are asking the Chinese to support Amanah.
Yet, until a few days ago, many Chinese in the town did not even know of the existence of Amanah. Ustaz Azhar, as the Amanah candidate is known as, is also not well-known although his father used to be an Umno strongman in these parts.
Why has DAP skirted the hudud issue in the campaign? The reason is that Amanah also supports hudud law and DAP does not and cannot answer why it is still sitting with PAS in Selangor government.
As a result, DAP prefers to harp on issues like 1MDB, RM2.6bil, corruption and GST or what one journalist calls “referendum type of issues”.
They are important issues but do not exactly touch the hearts and minds of the common folk.
In that sense, Barisan’s Budiman has a much better feel of the ground. He has kept his message simple and down to earth, telling people that he aspires to see every family has at least one graduate.
Budiman’s father was an English teacher in the kampung and his message is that he wants people to learn English and has been organising English classes for students in Sungai Panjang where he is the assemblyman.
He tells people to come to him if they have problems and he will try to help. He is not promising the sky but he is telling people that he will be there for them. As for PAS, it is quite invisible in the Chinese town area.
The Chinese have not been the most rational of people in recent times, having been swept along by the political tsunami.
Sekinchan will be the best indicator of whether the Chinese sentiment has softened or is still as hard as ever.
