It’s an all-out challenge in Johor

Joceline Tan, The Star

THE rather run-down kopitiam near the busiest part of Ayer Hitam town is known for its char siew pau or steamed pork buns.

On that blazing Saturday afternoon, some people were eating Foochow lor meen or noodles that the town is famous for, while another table was having durians.

But reporters waiting to meet Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong were downing cans of chilled 100 PLUS to cool down.

Dr Wee arrived in a white MPV, wearing a sporty T-shirt and looking as though he had stepped out of a cold shower.

Despite the sanguine demeanour, he insisted that he is not taking anything for granted in the coming general election.

“This is my third term but I never underestimate my opponents. GE14 will be an all-out challenge,” he said.

Ling Kian Soon, the fresh-faced MCA candidate for Yong Peng, nodded in agreement.

Ling, 34, and a protege of Dr Wee, was the youngest person to become an MCA division chairman – he was only 29 when he won the post.

Dr Wee began grooming him for electoral politics after noticing Ling’s involvement in youth activities and Buddhist groups in Johor. Moreover, Ling seemed to know almost everybody in town.

But Ling is about to face his first big political test – vying for the Yong Peng state seat against DAP which won the seat in 2013.

It is pretty daunting because DAP is still at the height of its popularity.

Moreover, the DAP cannons are aimed at Dr Wee this time around. He is being challenged by DAP’s Johor chairman Liew Chin Tong.

Dr Wee is MCA’s biggest name in Johor and it will be a huge psychological victory for DAP to defeat him.

DAP has been demonising Dr Wee and his party at the ceramah rounds that have begun in earnest in Chinese areas all over the state. If words were bullets, Dr Wee would be bullet-ridden by now.

DAP says it needs to win in Ayer Hitam because Dr Wee is an Umno pawn and MCA is under the armpit of Umno.

It does not really make much sense because MCA has openly criticised Umno on a variety of issues whereas there has not been a squeak from any of the Pakatan Harapan partners about the goings-on over Penang’s controversial undersea tunnel or land reclamation projects.

Dr Wee and his protege will have to bring everything they have to the table and leave nothing to chance.

The DAP onslaught in Johor is not to be underestimated; they are hungry for more seats. They know it will be tougher than in 2013 because the Chinese tsunami is over and the mood has been quite subdued.

But it is still early, the temperature will probably rise when the election date is known and candidates are unveiled. That will be when the va va voom starts.

On a drizzly evening last weekend, a DAP fundraising dinner filled an upmarket Chinese restaurant in Johor Jaya. It was a middle-class Chinese crowd. From the way they dressed and carried themselves, you could see they were people of means – the sort who live in homes with automatic gates and drive Camrys and Alphards.

DAP events in smaller towns tend to be dominated by senior citizens but this crowd was mostly aged between 30 and 50.

The final speaker at the dinner was Perak DAP chief Nga Kor Ming, who has become the man of the moment, especially after he accepted his party challenge to take on Gerakan president Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong in Teluk Intan.

Nga is first and foremost an entertainer. His ceramah appearances are rarely about policies or what his party intends to do for the people.

His talent lies in scolding the Government and making off-colour jokes. His detractors say his style is unbecoming of a lawmaker but his fan base loves it and his star power in Johor seems to have eclipsed that of Lim Kit Siang.

There is also some sort of generational shift on the Chinese ground. Lim galvanised the Chinese mood when he contested in Gelang Patah in 2013. The Johor Chinese went gaga over him then.

But as one of those at the above dinner noted, Lim looked tired.

Actually he is still highly charged but he looks his age and his right eye cannot seem to open fully following the recent injury to his forehead. Most of all, his messaging style has not changed very much and it does not exactly gel with the new generation.

A younger and newer generation in DAP is leading the charge in Johor and that is something which Barisan Nasional cannot take lightly.