Felda settlers may call the shots

BN and PAS have locked horns on the battlefields of Tenang and the outcome may depend on the 'new kingmakers'.

LABIS: The two traditional rivals – Barisan Nasional (BN) and PAS – launched their verbal war, barely 12 hours after nominations ended.

PAS started beating the drums on national issues, which drew a crowd of about 300 in its ceramahs. Pitching in was its Pakatan Rakyat partners – PKR and DAP – whose leaders added spice with their personal attacks on Prime Minister and BN chairman Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor.

The Pakatan campaign strategy is easy to read: PAS concentrated its fire on the Malay voters while PKR and DAP wooed the Chinese electorate.

The Islamist party has also added another weapon in its arsenal: it is using the online medium, particularly the blogs, to get its members to rebut BN allegations.

The Tenang constituency may be largely rural but the youths there are Internet-savvy and they are the ones who are relaying the cyber news to the voting parents.

BN, on the other hand, has adopted a low-profile, door-to-door campaigning, the same tactic it used successfully in the recent Galas by-election.

It also took another leaf out of the Galas book: it made the by-election an-all Johor affair. Thus no outsiders were invited to campaign or set up operation centres. Only Umno, MCA and MIC divisions in Johor are given a freehand to run their show.

Johor BN, chaired by Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman, has also barred VIPs such as ministers from coming in with a big entourage to cut ribbons for new buildings or give donations.

This was the scenario that played out on Saturday night: Pakatan leaders were boisterously campaigning around town and the Felda schemes while local BN leaders were contented with meeting only small groups of voters in their house-to-house visits.

Felda deposit

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was on the stumps milling with Felda settlers who gave him a warm reception since his Pagoh parliamentary constituency is next to Tenang. He does enjoy some measure of popularity.

In the absence of local issues, BN seems to have an edge and may garner the support of the 14,573 voters. But it is too early to gauge whether the ruling coalition can increase its majority.

Many observers, including bloggers from Kuala Lumpur who are here to observe the electoral show, opined that BN may not be able to increase its 2,400-odd majority it gained in the 2008 general election if the Chinese voters continue to shun the ruling coalition.

But the assumption may not hold water as the Malay voters in Felda schemes are now “returning” to support BN. PAS candidate Normala Sudirman may be a popular figure as a good teacher and good Muslim, but she is not “political material” that the voters can depend on for development.

In short, Normala has a long way to go to win the hearts and minds of the Malay voters in the Felda settlements despite having the party bigwigs following her on the campaign trail. The Felda settlers may turn out to be BN’s “new deposit”, replacing the Chinese voters. BN candidate Azahar Ibrahim may capture the Tenang prize. - FMT