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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

A close fight for the other side of the island


Balik Pulau is a quiet township in the constituency. — Pictures by K.E. Ooi
The next general election is expected to be the closest fight to form the new Malaysian government. And several seats across the nation are likely to be heated battles with the slimmest of majorities. The Malaysian Insider takes a look at some of these hot seats in what will be an intense election for control of Malaysia. 
GEORGE TOWN, Jan 8 — The Balik Pulau constituency may be the largest one on the island but it has the least number of registered voters with only 39,765 voters compared to the over 40,000 registered voters in rural constituencies on the mainland or more than 60,000 voters in smaller constituencies in the heart of George Town.
This is due to the vast tract of hilly land and forested terrain that the constituency covers, from the busy town of Bayan Lepas down to the valley of the quiet Balik Pulau township and right around to the fishing villages of Teluk Bahang.
For the longest time, Balik Pulau was a place the city folks of George Town would rather not visit except during durian season.
This rural constituency has been an Umno stronghold since 1969. The voters, consisting of about 60 per cent Malays, are mostly pro-Barisan Nasional (BN) and are fiercely loyal to BN and Umno.
However, the tide turned in 2008 with Pakatan Rakyat (PR) managing to win the seat even if it was by only a small majority. A BN grassroots leader said it was probably due to the unpopularity of the BN candidate and not because of growing support for PR.
After all, the three state constituencies under Balik Pulau are all now held by BN, though each with smaller majorities.
So what happened? In 2004, Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya (BN) won the parliamentary seat with a massive majority of 12,937 votes.
A true-blue Balik Pulau boy who was born and bred there, Hilmi is a familiar and well-known figure loved and respected by many villagers.
“Everyone here knows Hilmi and everyone loves him because he is always going down to the ground to help the people,” said a Balik Pulau Umno Youth committee member.
An aerial view of Balik Pulau. The constituency has close to 40,000 voters.
He was a three-term Teluk Bahang assemblyman before he stood for Parliament in 2004.
But in 2008, Umno decided to field another candidate — Datuk Dr Norraesah Mohamad — for the Balik Pulau seat and Hilmi went back to Teluk Bahang to contest for a state assembly seat. He won but with a smaller majority — 465 votes. 
And of course, Umno lost the parliamentary seat of Balik Pulau to PKR’s Yusmadi Yusoff who won with a 708-vote majority.
This coming elections though, Hilmi is set to make a play to wrest the seat back from Pakatan.
“We all want Hilmi to be there. The previous elections BN lost this seat because they placed someone whom the villagers are not familiar with,” a Balik Pulau Umno division committee member said.
“It doesn’t matter who Hilmi goes up against but with him there, we are sure that we will be getting more support compared to 2008,” said Balik Pulau Wanita Umno committee member Fatimah Idris.
She said all the villagers cared about is the candidate and whether he/she is someone they like.
“Hilmi is still the preferred candidate by the constituents,” she said.
Another Balik Pulau Umno Youth committee member disagreed though, saying it was now rather hard to judge the people’s sentiments, especially those who are now more exposed to various media and influences through the Internet.
“It will be quite tough for BN to win back this seat as the voters could swing to PR even though the candidate is someone they’ve known for many years,” he said.
Balik Pulau is well known for its durians and Penang folk make a beeline there during durian season.
However, he said Budget 2013 which included goodies for the people such as BR1M and handphone subsidies may help to pull fence sitters over to BN.
“Many villagers are happy with these handouts and they may just feel ‘indebted’ to BN, at least enough to want to vote for BN again,” he said.
Despite this, he admitted that this does not guarantee votes if the voters had already switched loyalty to PR.
“For rural people, loyalty is one of their main values and we are banking on all the diehard BN supporters to continue supporting us but in recent years, many have switched loyalty and this is worrying,” he said.
“But this does not mean that the choice of candidate does not make a difference as at the end of the day, a large chunk of the voters go for the candidate rather than the party,” he added.
A Balik Pulau PKR member and Penang Island municipal councillor Sr Mohd Zahry Shaikh Abdul Rahman said villagers nowadays are different from before as they are more well-informed and secure about what Pakatan Rakyat has to offer.
“They are more open to Pakatan Rakyat now compared to several years ago and realise that they have nothing to fear,” he said.
“Maybe they don’t want Hilmi to be there anymore as he has served for five terms either as Teluk Bahang assemblyman or Balik Pulau MP,” a Teluk Bahang PKR division leader said.
The other name that has come up is Muhamad Farid Saad, the incumbent Pulau Betong assemblyman.
Farid has been hard at work going down to the ground and he is yet another favourite and familiar face that locals can identify with.
Whether Umno fields Hilmi or Farid, the person they are likely to face off against is Balik Pulau PKR chief Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain, who is also the state assembly Speaker.
If that happens, it will be the second time Abdul Halim and Hilmi face each other. In 2008, Abdul Halim was defeated by Hilmi for the Teluk Bahang state seat.
PKR is likely to field Abdul Halim in Balik Pulau.
Some Balik Pulau residents think Hilmi will probably win the seat but with a very small margin. “He has not only got the support of the Malay voters but even the Chinese and Indian voters like him,” said one villager.
There are more than 35 per cent Chinese voters in the area while four per cent are Indians.
Abdul Halim admits that PKR is the underdog in Balik Pulau. “We admit that it is going to be tough as this is Umno’s stronghold but we are certain that more villagers now have access to the Internet and information so they can make more informed choices,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
Did the incumbent Balik Pulau MP Yusmadi leave a bad impression with his frequent absences from the constituency?
Commuting between Penang and Kuala Lumpur, the young lawyer MP did not do much to endear himself to his constituents.
Zahry said the villagers still have a mindset that they must see their parliamentarians in person regularly to consider the MP as “hardworking.”
“He is a good parliamentarian but perhaps he is too advanced for his constituents so maybe he is more suited to a more urbanised area,” he added.
Perhaps this is the reason why party leaders have decided not to let him defend his seat but instead might place him in a seat in Kuala Lumpur where he spends most of his time nowadays.
“We don’t see him that much here as his work is based in KL and I have heard that he wants to contest in KL so it is a good move to put Abdul Halim here instead of him,” another Teluk Bahang PKR division member said.
Though he would not confirm that he will be fielded as a candidate for Balik Pulau, Abdul Halim said he had been visiting the constituency and doing his door-to-door rounds already.
“We are still getting good positive response from the people of Balik Pulau,” he said.
As it stands, PKR looks like it will have a tough time defending the Balik Pulau seat.

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