PONTIAN: The campaign for the Tanjung Piai parliamentary by-election which began after the nomination yesterday morning could witness the emergence of a new political ideology as well as a contest among erstwhile friends.
It could trigger a healthy competition to determine who is better, based on factors other than the different backgrounds of the candidates, in the minds of the 53,000 voters in the constituency.
The by-election is a six-way contest involving the Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Karmaine Sardini, the Barisan Nasional’s Wee Jeck Seng, and Wendy Subramaniam of Gerakan, formerly a BN component party.
The others are: Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz of Barisan Jemaah Islamiah (Berjasa) and independent candidates, Ang Chuan Lock, founder of a tuition centre, and Faridah Aryani Abdul Ghaffar, representing All-Malaysia Taxi Coalition (GTSM).
The ruling party candidate, Karmaine Sardini, 66, division chief of PPBM Tanjung Piai, regards the contest as a platform to bring back the support of the people of Tanjung Piai for the government.
This by-election would be the second for Karmaine, an architect and mosque imam. He was the PPBM candidate for the Pontian parliamentary seat in 2018 against Ahmad Maslan (BN) but lost with a 833-vote majority.
His age and his credibility as someone who had lost at an election, has had tongues wagging..
A PPBM member who only wanted to be identified as Elmi said Karmaine would need to work hard to carve his name in the hearts of the voters and also on the lips of netizens if he wanted to be elected..
But he said Karmaine still had the strength to pull voters: the support of the PH government at federal and state level was an advantage in the aspect of bringing development.
The Pontian and the Tanjung Piai parliamentary constituencies are both in Pontian district, in fact a part of the town of Pontian is in the Pontian seat and another in the Tanjung Piai constituency.
In the opposition camp, BN picked Wee, a former two-term MP, although he lost to the late Md Farid Md Rafiq of PH in 2018.
Wee was a two-term Tanjung Piai Member of Parliament from 2008 to 2018. Prior to that, he was the state assemblyman for Pekan Nanas, which is in the Tanjung Piai parliamentary area.
Despite Wee being labelled a ‘’recycled’’ candidate, the MP for Pontian, Ahmad Maslan, said BN was confident about their choice of the candidate creating a shock later.
The by-election is unusual in having a candidate from Gerakan, a BN component party which left the coalition after its losses in the 2018 general election. Gerakan’s national deputy secretary-general Wendy Subramaniam is the party’s candidate.
Questions have been raised about the party’s ability to go it alone, without guidance from its former BN colleagues after being partners for a very long time.
A geostrategist, Azmi Hassan, said Gerakan would need more time before it could contest as an independent party, as it was seen as being not fully ready for the election this time.
The clash of ideologies also involves Berjasa, a former ally of PAS, fielding its president Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz, after the party alleged that Islam was being bullied after more than a year of PH rule, as well as the BN candidate (MCA’s Wee Jeck Seng) being regarded as not being able to meet the Malay-Islam aspirations.
Umno veteran and former minister Syed Hamid Albar said the by-election was a litmus test for all parties: whether they could win the attention and support of voters, or be rejected and labelled as mere noise-makers and trouble-makers out for short term gains..
The Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat was held by the late Md Farid who won in May 2018, edging out Wee and PAS candidate Nordin Othman.
Voting is on Nov 16. - FMT
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