JOHOR POLLS | Several MCA candidates have roped in former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak to campaign for them in the Johor polls despite his corruption conviction. However, in Yong Peng, MCA candidate Ling Tian Soon is banking on his local service track record.
Ling, who was first fielded as a candidate in Yong Peng in 2018 but was defeated, had continued to work in the constituency and that effort appeared to have paid off.
Tan Ming Kee, a 70-year-old retiree had complained about a "thief behind MCA" but was prepared to overlook that fact due to Ling's local service record.
Tan said Ling, better known as "Ah Soon" had assisted residents during the Covid-19 vaccination process and also provided disinfection services during the pandemic.
Other residents said they are rejecting Ling outright due to BN's association with Najib.
“The outcome of the Johor election is linked to the long-term future of this country," said a 60-year-old palm oil smallholder who wanted to be known as Chong.
However, many voters agree that with disillusionment on national issues, the local factor has become more important.
A coffee shop owner who lives in Kampung Parit Awang Darat recalled how a villager received help with his dialysis fees.
"Ah Soon and (MCA president) Wee Ka Siong sponsored almost RM5,000 for the patient. Their assistance is regardless of race,” said the middle-aged man.
MCA is seeing Yong Peng as its best hope to pick up at least one state seat and for good reason - it failed to win any state seats in Johor in the last general election.
Incumbent suffered stroke
Residents have complained about a lack of service from DAP's incumbent Chew Peck Choo, who suffered a stroke shortly after being elected in 2018.
Chew first won Yong Peng in 2013 with strong support from the Chinese community and won her second term in 2018 amid the strong anti-establishment sentiment.
She had a good reputation for serving the people, but she suffered a minor stroke in November 2018, reportedly due to overwork.
After Chew announced that she wouldn't contest in this election, DAP moved its Senai assemblyperson Alan Tee Boon Tsong to fill in for Chew.
However, it has not been smooth sailing for Tee.
During a visit to a local kopitiam (coffee shop) on the first week of the campaign, Tee had to sit through an elderly man's tirade that the DAP incumbent had failed to resolve an issue of fallen trees.
After listening to the complaint, Tee apologised to the voter and explained Chew had some health issues and had to retire.
Tee later received yet another similar complaint at another kopitiam. Being moved to a new constituency also meant Tee needed time to build up his local network.
Local teams
In contrast, MCA's Ling has built well-oiled machinery.
His supporters have turned a cafe into his election operations centre named ‘Teratak Ah Soon’, which displayed various pictures of Ling helping the local community.
There were also a number of youths in Ling’s campaign team, most of them are locals from the Crisis Relief Squad of MCA (CRSM) or Kelab Mahasiswa MCA.
Two youths from the team told Malaysiakini that they joined the MCA volunteer group when they were in secondary school and have known Ah Soon since then.
Lee Chia Loke, 23, joined CRSM when he was 15. He is studying urban planning at Universiti Malaya.
“I don’t know about the situation in other places, but in Yong Peng, I can see Ah Soon and MCA really doing their job to help the poor, orphans, or single mothers.
“That’s what attracted me to take part in their activities," he said while acknowledging that his peers had mocked him for helping MCA.
Pakatan Harapan's local team was relatively smaller.
Bugh Chu Yu, 22, who was influenced by his family to join the campaign team, told Malaysiakini his team is trying to convince more youths to go out and vote.
He said the main difficulty they are facing is that most youths are still apathetic about politics.
“Many people are disappointed by the collapse of the Harapan government. They felt that their votes couldn’t change anything since they (BN) will eventually be back in power.
“That's why the anti-hopping law which is going to be tabled in Parliament is very important,” said Bugh.
DAP brings reinforcements
In videos, ceramah, and social media, Johor DAP candidates are trying hard to convince voters who work outside the state to come back to vote, using different approaches.
Sensing danger, DAP's top leaders have been campaigning in Yong Peng although the ceramah there have been relatively small with crowds of around 20 to 30 people.
For the last two days of the campaign, DAP deputy secretary-general Nga Kor Ming, who is known for his firebrand speeches in the Chinese community, was also roped in to help with the local campaign.
DAP's Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching had acknowledged that Yong Peng is now considered a dangerous seat. This could be aggravated by a likely depressed turnout amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Not to be outmatched, top MCA leaders including Wee Ka Siong have also been campaigning in the constituency.
MCA's Ling is also the national organising secretary and DAP's Tee is the political secretary to Johor DAP chief Liew Chin Tong.
The senior stature of both leaders has led Yong Peng to be viewed as a proxy battle between MCA and DAP.
The third candidate is Perikatan Nasional's Susan Yong although the Yong Peng battle is largely seen as a two-horse race.
In the last general election, DAP won Yong Peng with a 5,089 majority. The semi-rural seat has around 57.7 percent Chinese, 35.4 percent Malays and 6.8 percent Indians. - Mkini
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