An intense battle for votes has developed in this usually quiet constituency in Malaysia’s northern Kedah state. With almost 75,000 voters, Padang Serai is one of the larger parliamentary constituencies. Demographically, 56% of the voters are Malays, with Indians and Chinese making up 23% and 21% respectively. Once a BN stronghold, Padang Serai voters unceremoniously ditched them for PKR in the 2008 elections.
In 2008, Gobalakrishnan, a portly, poorly educated but extremely loud representative of PKR was voted in as MP for Padang Serai. However Gobala proved to be no stoic, leaving PKR in acrimonious fashion in 2010.
Losing in the party elections, Gobala had expected to be appointed to the powerful post of Vice-President by Anwar Ibrahim. Mr.Anwar, however, chose to appoint N.Surendran, an established human rights lawyer who had not participated in party elections. It was an entirely unexpected move and left Gobala stunned and furious.
Shakespeare vs vulgarities
He was oblivious to his own obvious limitations to hold such a high-profile, national-level post. Where Surendran could quote Shakespeare at will, Gobala would spout vulgarities. Where Surendran had been engaged in a selfless battle for over a decade to protect the poor and needy against the depredations of an uncaring BN, Gobala was a self-serving politician, harassing PR office-bearers with pleas for contracts.
Gobala chose to virulently attack Anwar and PKR for weeks, essentially forcing PKR to sack him. Yet he, like an obese Gollum, appears to yet have a role in the drama unfolding in Padang Serai today. Even if only as comic relief. And when he loses his deposit on May 5th, it's a cautionary tale for aspiring party-hoppers.
The Heng factor
The real battle in Padang Serai is between the BN Deputy Minister Heng Sai Ki and PKR’s N.Surendran. Heng is in truth an unwilling candidate, having lobbied strongly to stand in Gopeng. Still she represents the BN and its, albeit corrupt, financial muscle. BN appears engaged in undisguised attempt to buy this election, as they are in other parts of Malaysia.
Heng is somewhat tainted by her association with Shahrizat Jalil, the much hated leader of Wanita Umno, and Ng Yen Yen, the scandal tainted leader of MCA’s women’s wing. To both of these leaders she had served as acquiescing deputy.
Her overtures to the Chinese community firmly rejected, Heng has resorted to appearing on TV3 herding ‘hundreds’ of ‘ex-PKR members’ to the BN fold. Never mind if some of them bear striking resemblance to known MIC members, in one of those cases. This is, of course, a staple tactic of Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional, pretending that opposition members are crossing over en masse to it, during elections.
Suren's to lose
The enthusiastic response he gets from voters does not bode well for the other candidates. He is clearly a familiar and popular face in Padang Serai, which he had been assigned to shepherd since 2011. Yet, like most other PKR candidates, Surendran operates on a shoe-string budget, and his campaign is financed by the public. This is in far contrast to the lavishly financed BN candidates, questionable though their sources of funds may be.
Gobala also walks around the constituency but is more often than not met with derision, ignored, or chased away by the voters. ‘Frogs’ are much reviled by Malaysian voters, being viewed as betraying the voters trust.
If our impromptu survey is any measure, Surendran and PKR will win this constituency by a landslide. On nomination day, he was accompanied by 5,000 supporters, while Heng had to be satisfied with a measly 200! Nevertheless, the threat of phantom voters remains dire in this constituency as in any other in Malaysia. PR’s polling agents and observers will be on high alert on May 5th to reduce, if not eliminate, such cheating.
Malaysia Chronicle
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