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Sunday, April 14, 2013

To keep Lembah Pantai, Nurul Izzah battles political patronage, dubious voters


KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 — Political patronage, dubious voters and direct cash handouts are making it hard for Nurul Izzah Anwar to keep Lembah Pantai from going to Umno’s Senator Raja Datuk Nong ChikNurul Izzah woos the crowd in her Lembah Pantai constituency last night. - Picture by Choo Choy MayZainal in the May 5 polls, the PKR vice-president said last night. 
She and her Pakatan Rakyat (PR) colleagues spoke at two ceramahs last night in the poorer sections of the federal seat, telling voters to keep her in the seat she first won in an equally tough uphill battle in Election 2008. 
“He’s not only minister, he’s minister of Wilayah Persekutuan. He controls DBKL’s largesse. And he controls all the projects. Everything is approved by him, name it. Nothing happens, nothing’s approved without him,” Nurul Izzah told The Malaysian Insider after the two ceramahs. 
Caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak named Nong Chik a senator to make him Federal Territories and Urban Well-being minister in 2009, putting him in charge of the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL). 
Since his appointment, Nong Chik has worked on various projects to uplift the constituency that includes the upscale Pantai and Bangsar neighbourhoods to poorer sections in Brickfields and Pantai Dalam. 
He has distributed oranges during Chinese New Year, porridge during the Muslim fasting month, sarees during the Indian Deepavali celebrations to win support in the constituency. PR officials also say the People’s 1 Malaysia Aid (BR1M) handouts also help in swaying support from the lower-income groups. 
“To be fair, it’s not even a contest in that sense. He’s not a MP. He was appointed and he himself is so rich and I think he continues Sharizat’s legacy because his daughter is also a recipient of a government project,” said Nurul Izzah, referring to her defeated BN opponent in 2008, Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil whose family won a publicly-funded cattle-farming project that is mired in controversy. 
Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin posted documents on his Malaysia Today website last year allegedly showing how Istijuara Sdn Bhd, a company owned by Nong Chik’s daughter Raja Farhana, had been awarded a RM30.8 million contract by the Youth and Sports ministry in August 2010. 
Sharizat has said she would not contest in the upcoming elections, and backed Nong Chik to run in her former seat, which she had held for three terms losing in 2008. 
Nurul Izzah also pointed out her worries about the 5,000 voters in Lembah Pantai considered dubious by her coalition. 
“It’s not an issue of new voters but transferred voters, about 5,000 of them. They are the killer because it’s a bit insidious how they were transferred in the first place. And we’ve checked the housing areas and they don’t live there,” said the eldest child of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. 
Earlier this month, she failed to get the High Court to consent to a judicial review against the Election Commission (EC) to compel it to clean up the electoral roll for her constituency. 
Nurul Izzah told The Malaysian Insider that despite the difficulties she sometimes faced with campaigning, she was encouraged by the turnout in Taman Bukit Angkasa, who were made up almost exclusively of Malay voters. 
“It’s not easy for them to show their political support here. They are bullied and harassed, and it’s not easy to man this booth and to actually be here,” the one-term lawmaker said. 
“Certainly we have to ensure our presence here because Umno is everywhere,” she added, saying this was to counter the influence of the Najib administration’s BR1M handouts 
“BRIM has a lasting effect on these people. You’re talking about more than 20,000 people in Lembah Pantai who have been recipients of BR1M. And the increase of RM500 to RM1200 is substantial,” she said. 
“They are affected by the handouts because it has never happened before. So its important to show we have succeeded in controlling corruption, at least reducing it in Selangor, and that we can give more in that sense,” added Nurul Izzah. 
Before the Taman Bukit Angkasa ceramah, she visited Brickfields for a Indian New Year celebration and also spoke at a packed ceramah in Bangsar with other party officials and Bersih co-chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan.

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