Isa claims PD homeground an advantage for him

PD POLLS | Former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Mohd Isa Abdul Samad is quick to point out that out of the seven candidates contesting in this by-election, he is the only one from Port Dickson.

In his political career spanning four decades, Isa has spent most of it as the Linggi assemblyperson and later the Bagan Pinang assemblyperson. Both these state seats are under the Port Dickson parliamentary constituency.

"I offer the people of Port Dickson good service. I have served this community for nearly 40 years.

"I have not left Port Dickson, so my relationship (with Port Dickson) still exists and I believe I will continue with this leadership style," Isa said in an interview with Malaysiakini, yesterday, at the operations room for his by-election campaign.

As someone who is local to Port Dickson and who served as the menteri besar for 22 years, Isa easily pinpointed issues in the parliamentary seat he would address as its MP.

An issue he feels is important in this area is the road system, which he said should have been more connected.

During his time as the menteri besar, he said he had already planned to build a better road network system in this area, but it was left incomplete after his time.

Now, he said, one of the main road connections which should be built is one connecting Sepang to Lukut.

Another widely cited issue in Port Dickson is its tourism industry, which many of the candidates have spoken about.

More central sewage systems needed

While Isa also spoke about tourism in Port Dickson, he specifically pointed out the importance of building more central sewage systems in the area.

"We already have a central sewage system, but if we can, we would like to add more so that the waste that goes out to the beach is treated first," he said.

This would help tremendously in keeping the beaches in Port Dickson clean, which in turn would attract more tourists to the town, he said.

Isa would be an independent MP if he were to win as he resigned from Umno to contest in this by-election.

As an independent MP, he said, he would bring up these issues in Parliament and if the federal government believes that tourism is something it should focus on as a source of revenue, then it should have no issues with his suggestions.

However, while Isa's years of experience in Port Dickson may give him the homeground advantage, he has also been surrounded by several controversies.

He was suspended from Umno for three years from 2005 due to alleged "money politics" during the party elections.

Isa said in the interview that the claims of "money politics" are untrue, and that the offence was actually "going against electoral ethics" (melanggar etika pemilihan).

"It was a decision made by the party's disciplinary committee and it was not brought to court," he said.

Another matter he was linked to are the Felda scandals, which the authorities were investigating.

Isa insisted that the investigations into Felda, and subsequently against him as the former Felda chairperson, had turned up nothing and there has been no charge in court against him.

Instead, he believes the Felda issue was intentionally hyped up.

"There was no issue, it was just hyped up by the media and... I am not sure of the real reason, maybe it was just to make Felda into an issue and then resolve it later to maybe gain some mileage.

"But in the end, it backfired," he said.

On whether these issues would be detrimental to public perception of him in Port Dickson, Isa said it was up to the people to judge for themselves.

He pointed out that his bank accounts were not frozen and he did not have his passport confiscated, among others.

"I hope the people in this community understand, and if the people of Port Dickson look at me, my lifestyle is just like this.

"It is not that luxurious, no," he said. - Mkini