YOU would think that being a homegrown candidate would give one the upper hand in the face of a tough challenge in a general election. But Parti Keadilan Rakyat's (PKR) Khalid Jaafar has proved that adage wrong not once, but three times.
Khalid, widely tipped as PKR's candidate for the parliamentary constituency of Hulu Selangor in the upcoming general election, now faces a different challenge as he tackles a whole new electorate. But he is undaunted and insists he can pull off an upset in the largely rural seat.
Though he may seem like a new face in Malaysian politics, the former journalist has experience contesting in (and losing) general elections: he had previously stood as candidate in the constituencies of Batu Berendam and later in Bukit Katil, Malacca since 1999.
Now, he's shifting his election hopes to Hulu Selangor.
The executive director of the Institute for Policy Research (IKD) however rejected the notion that being parachuted to Hulu Selangor would be a disadvantage after having operated in Malacca for 14 years.
"Although the normal thing is to go back to your roots to contest, I think is a fallacy," Khalid told fz.com.
"I was born in Batu Berendam, Malacca, yes but at the age of 15 I went to boarding school in Seremban and I would only visit during school holidays. I didn't have much interaction with the peers in my age group in my village. After graduating from college, I started working and eventually settled down in Selangor, where I've been since.
"The only time we used to go back after that was for Hari Raya or to visit our parents. I have no engagement with the people (there).
"This is what happened to most us in PKR – we went back to our kampung after 10 years and some even 20 years – thinking that people know you but the truth is, they forget you. You were not at their weddings or funerals, you were not there for their youth activities – you're detached."
Challenging Ghafar Baba
Khalid had his first taste of the political contest in 1999 when he challenged the late Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba for the Batu Berendam parliamentary seat. Khalid, who was standing under the Parti Keadilan Nasional (PKN) banner, lost to the Umno veteran and former deputy prime minister by 7,105 votes.
PKN was, at that time, part of a loose coalition known as the Barisan Alternatif, made up of DAP, PKN, Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) and PAS, which was formed in the wake of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sacking as deputy prime minister and from Umno, and his subsequent arrest.
Khalid is a close ally of Anwar, having worked as the latter's press secretary from the time he was education minister in the 1980s until he became deputy prime minister. Yet Khalid remained averse to joining Umno to pursue a career in politics and instead dreamt of life in academia.
But the antipathy against politics did not last long as the injustice targetted against his former boss prompted him to take a lead role in helping form PKN in 1999.
"I know of all that can go wrong but in 1998 it was something really extraordinary. Right after Anwar's arrest, there was a witch hunt. I had to go into hiding. I left everything behind and hid in Jakarta for six months.
"That's when I made a choice to help build a political movement – just ordinary dissent was not enough. We knew we had to take a frontal struggle and politics is the only way it can be done," he said, shuddering at the thought of the distant memory.
A delineation exercise prior to the 2004 general polls saw Batu Berendam divided into the parliamentary constituencies of Bukit Katil and Tangga Batu, prompting Khalid to contest again after PKN merged with PRM to form the present PKR.
But the 58-year-old tasted defeat once more as he lost against Umno's Datuk Mohd Ruddin Abdul Ghani by a whopping 27,252 votes in the contest for Bukit Katil.
Although the saying goes "third time's lucky", this adage too did little to help Khalid when he faced off against Umno's Datuk Md Sirat Abu in the 2008 general election for the same seat. He lost, but this time by 1,758 votes despite the opposition's new pact, Pakatan Rakyat, making substantial inroads to Parliament.
"In 2008, I would have won had there been indelible ink. I lost by about 1,700 votes, I needed 900 votes. There were incidences of dubious voters that we heard of but I didn't have enough polling agents at that time," said Khalid sounding rather dejected.
Connection with voters
Nevertheless, the electoral let-downs do not seem to have hampered Khalid's determination to win over voters in Hulu Selangor, an area the size of Malacca, as he finds he is comparatively better connected to the electorate here.
Anwar, whom Khalid has known since their days in the Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim) movement, made Khalid's candidacy public in a ceramah in February, making it easier for his protege to establish a support base.
"I've lived in Bukit Beruntung for more than a decade now, in fact it's more economical to base my politics here rather than commuting to Malacca which I could only do during the weekends," said Khalid, who is also a PKR supreme council member.
"I don't have to waste time to travel for two and a half hours to start my political work. Here my work, one way or another, involves political activity.
"In April 2011, I was appointed by the state as the coordinator for Batang Kali to carry out state policies and services to the people. That was when I got my chances to do my political work, serve the people.
"Hulu Selangor has 83,000 voters but half are in Batang Kali. Another 20,000 voters in Kuala Kubu Baru and another 20,000 in Ulu Bernam," he said.
Khalid insists that he stands a fair chance against Hulu Selangor's incumbent MP P Kamalanathan, who had won the seat in a by-election in 2010 after the death of PKR's Datuk Zainal Abiden Ahmad. (Zainal Abiden had beaten MIC's Datuk Seri G Palanivel in the 2008 GE).
The party's loss in the by-election, he said, was due to weak machinery but the problem has been rectified since then as PKR has developed better cooperation with village heads after having neglected their role in the past.
"I've lived here for more than a decade. I know this area and its problem too. I'm concentrating on areas we lost badly like Batang Kali – there are two polling districts with combined 7,000 voters. In 2008 we reached above 40% support but in the by-election we got below 40%; it's a hard core Umno area," he said.
Noting that "every election is a new election", Khalid said the factors that led to the political tsunami five years ago may not be relevant now but the Pakatan-run Selangor government's efforts to alleviate some of the problems faced by the poor, who make up a sizeable portion of Hulu Selangor's electorate, will work to his advantage.
Having run and lost in three elections, most pundits don't think much of Khalid's chances of winning back Hulu Selangor against a Barisan Nasional determined to win back the state.
BN has poured plenty of resources – both financial and in terms of physical development – into the area and have a well-oiled machinery to boot.
In the face of this, Khalid has a very tough task ahead of him to convince voters to back Pakatan Rakyat. Still, he seems optimistic, though his strategy so far seems to involve riding on the state initiatives for the people – such as free water, the RM2,500 funeral expenses for senior citizens, and the micro-credit scheme for the urban poor – to garner support.
> Part Two: PKR's development plans for Hulu Selangor
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.