Young Turks face off in pendulum seat
Joceline Tan, The Star
“CALL me Ah Chong” – that was how Deputy Education Minister Datuk Chong Sin Woon introduced himself to the folk in Seremban at an event a year ago.
It was Chong’s way of connecting with the local populace, to show that he is one of them because he grew up in Nilai, on the outskirts of Seremban.
Everyone in town, including the local press corps, now refers to him as “Ah Chong”.
Chong, who is also MCA Youth chief, will be vying for the Seremban parliamentary seat against another hometown boy, DAP’s Anthony Loke, who won the seat in 2013.
It is a sort of David versus Goliath story because this is the first general election for Chong, 43, and he is clearly the underdog.
Loke, 46, is the DAP organising secretary and is known as a political titan in Negri Sembilan. The long-time bachelor got married a couple of years ago to a lady who looked like a K-pop artiste.
He often goes about wearing a moody look but put him on a stage and he can set it on fire with his oratory.
Loke not only won in Seremban in 2013; he also contested and won the Chennah state seat. With that, he accomplished a complete wipe-out of MCA seats in the state and for the first time ever, MCA was not represented in the state government.
On Sunday night, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad turned up in Seremban alongside other Pakatan Harapan leaders to give the local machinery a boost ahead of the elections.
Loke won with a majority of 12,553 votes in 2013 but he is not taking anything for granted because he knows the political tsunami has come and gone.
The Chinese support is still there – going by the largely Chinese crowd at the Sunday gathering – but the situation has changed now that PAS is no longer there to rally Malay support for Pakatan.
Moreover, Seremban is somewhat of a pendulum seat. Since the seat was created in 1974, the Chinese voters there have swung between DAP and MCA four times in 10 elections.
Seremban was also the stage for then MCA president Tan Sri Lee San Choon to accept a dare by DAP to contest in a Chinese-majority seat in the 1982 general election.
Lee captured the Chinese imagination and won only to resign as Seremban MP and MCA president a year later over what is believed to be unkept promises on the part of the then Umno leadership.
The seat then swung back to DAP until 1990 when MCA took it back by 77 votes prompting the locals to call it the “two cangkul victory” because the numerical seven is like the shape of a hoe.
In 2008, DAP won back the seat by a narrow majority but the gap widened in 2013 because the local MCA division leadership could not accept Datuk Dr Yeow Chai Thiam, the parachute candidate forced on them by then party president Tan Sri Dr Chua Soi Lek.
It was quite a disastrous situation because the Seremban Umno division chief Datuk Ishak Ismail, who died last year, was also at loggerheads with Dr Yeow.
It was like a perfect storm – there was internal sabotage all round, a record high number of 1,486 spoilt votes and the seat went to Loke by a major landslide.
Chong has been working very hard in the area for more than a year.
He played a big role in helping the local traders after the big fire at the central wet market and he has been doing the work of a YB, responding to local complaints, big and small.
But Chinese politics has become a game of punishment rather than appreciation and a good service record does not guarantee victory.
However, Chong has an advantage this time because the MCA division leadership is fully supportive of him.
“Ah Chong has a good relationship with us. He has no political baggage and we have been helping to promote him,” said Seremban MCA chief Siow Koi Voon.
Siow, a lawyer, said the national leadership had consulted the division on candidates for Seremban and the three state seats and decisions were made by consensus and not from the top down.
Chong is close to the Chinese associations and he has also established a good working relationship with the Umno Youth and Wanita wings in the constituency because he needs their help to campaign in the Malay areas.
There are six state seats under Seremban, of which Lenggeng, Sikamat and Ampangan are Malay-majority while Nilai, Lobak and Temiang are Chinese-majority.
Chong’s situation is similar to what DAP’s Liew Chin Tong is doing in Ayer Hitam, Johor. They are taking high risks and trying to pull off an upset.
It will definitely be uphill for Chong but, said Siow, “it also depends on how the wind blows”.
“This time, voters are very quiet, they don’t seem excited or worked up like five years ago. But I cannot tell whether that is good or bad for us,” said Siow.
Will the Seremban pendulum swing?
“Ah Chong” is trying to make the pendulum swing back while Loke is trying to make the pendulum stand still.
