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Friday, April 26, 2013

The battle of old and new in Gelang Patah


Lim Kit Siang is trying new ways to engage BN's traditional voters in Gelang Patah even as caretaker MB Abdul Ghani Othman calls for 'status quo'.
JOHOR BARU: The Gelang Patah battle between DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang and Johor Umno chief Abdul Ghani Othman is a battle of the “old” and the “new” at its best.
Lim is “new” in the sense that his Gelang Patah attempt is his maiden foray into a parliamentary constituency with less than 70 percent of Chinese voters in Johor.
He entered the battlefield branding himself and Pakatan Rakyat as the bearers of “new politics”, which he said is in stark contrast to the BN’s politics of the past marred by racial politics, corruptions and mass abuses of power.
Ghani, on the other hand, is a veteran Johor Menteri Besar who has been guarding the Umno fortress for 18 years and a familiar face to the local voters.
His counter-fire campaign emphasises on maintaining the existing policies, political, business, and social status quo that was already great for Johor.
This was evident when Lim kick-started his campaigning after nominations last Saturday by sounding the “Johor leads” slogan and calling Johoreans to be the “fulcrum” of political change.
“For the past 56 years, Johor has been the political backwaters, with the people of Johor following great political events and breakthroughs in other states.
“The time has come in the 13th general election for the political transformations of Malaysian politics with Johor as the fulcrum of new politics of Malaysia with all Johoreans rallying to the battle cry of ‘Johor leads’,” he said.
Accompanying his message are banners, pamphlets, badges and even recycled bags calling the people to “change”.
“May 5, Ubah!” he chanted in ceramahs.
The ‘Ubah’ truck which could be turned into a makeshift stage is also a new sight in this election, as it allows the opposition to hold open air ceramahs virtually everywhere.

35% Malay votes
Lim is employing fresh tactics in his bid to vie for the Malay supports by engaging ally PAS.
PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu and vice-president Salahuddin Ayub, who is contesting the adjacent Pulai parliamentary seat and Nusajaya state seat, reminded supporters on many occasions that they must vote for any Pakatan coalition parties including the DAP.
“There is no eh-eh-ah-ah on this issue again,” Mat Sabu told the 1,500-odd predominantly Malay crowd at a ceramah on Tuesday.
“The Majlis Syura of PAS has decided that we must vote for any Pakatan parties. That means we must also vote for Kit Siang,” Mat Sabu said.
Malays make-up 34% of Gelang Patah’s 106,864 voters, while Chinese, Indian and Orang Seletar (asli tribe) form the balance 52%, 12% and 0.84% respectively.
According to DAP, in the 2008 general election, the opposition represented by PKR only obtained 7-14% of the Malay votes.
MCA’s Tan Ah Eng clinched the seat with 8,851 majority.
Lim’s campaign team said they needed 35% of the Malay supports, on the top of 80% Chinese and 50% Indian votes to win the battle.
With the Chinese and Indian support almost ‘clinched’, they are now all out to hunt for Malay votes.
“We plan to have more rounds in the Malay areas. Our ceramahs there are gaining pace but we need more improvements,” said a member of Lim’s campaign team.
‘Keep BN status quo’
Ghani however believed that the current administrative system still worked best.
Widely seen as a Malay gentleman, he told reporters in several occasions that people from all walks of life have been ardently supporting the BN, and they have been benefiting from the government’s policies.
His strong confidence is partly derived from the fact that during his tenure as a MB, fundings were granted to the state Islamic and vernacular schools as well as some Chinese private secondary education institutions. He has also had frequent interactions with various communities.
For him, such a model is the Johor’s way of life, and should be preserved to say the least.
“There have been some attempts to upset what has been the Johor way,” he told reporters after nominations on Saturday.
“They (DAP) intend to create a voting polarisation along racial lines, but I hope such attempts to polarise supports will be refuted by the voters in Johor,” he said.
The Johor Umno chief also favoured the traditional BN tactics of developments.
He does that by making a “coincidential” announcement after the April 20 nomination that Malaysia richest man – Robert Kuok – is returning to invest in his birthplace Johor Baru. Kuok will be investing RM1 billion in mixed development projects.
“This is a clear indication of investors’ confidence in us. I was the one who met him a year ago and invited him to look into the potential investment opportunities in Iskandar Malaysia,” Ghani said on Tuesday.
Ghani’s campaigning team also maintains the use of indoor venues to hold ceramahs, and frequently resorts to mobilising members of BN component parties to attend.
At a ceramah in Taman Universiti with Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday, most of the 1,500 attendees were wearing Puteri Umno’s headscarf, or flying PPP flags.
The few Chinese who turned up told FMT that they are MCA members.
Although Lim and Ghani are pretty much neck-to-neck at this stage of the race, Lim appeared to be gaining more momentum with his slogan of change.
The battle of the “old” and the “new” in Gelang Patah would be a major test of Malaysia’s democratic maturity.

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