STATE POLLS | Kampung Jeneri, located just shy of a 30-minute drive from Sik town, is not particularly large but boasts spectacular views of paddy fields and rubber plantations located within the area.
The village also happens to be the root of BN’s Jeneri candidate Muhammad Khizri Abu Kassim, who is up against incumbent Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor.
“Yeah, I know Khizri, his house is just across the street,” says rubber tapper Saad Khamis, 61, a long-time BN supporter.
Saad and his wife, Soraya Kassim, are part of a large group of middle-aged folks and seniors in Jeneri who remain staunch supporters of the BN coalition throughout the years.
However, pointing to their surroundings, Soraya highlighted how BN supporters are often outnumbered in the constituency.
While campaigning was in full swing, there was a lack of political flags or campaign material during Malaysiakini’s visit to Kampung Jeneri.
That is, except for one giant green flag with a white circle in the middle - signalling the village’s allegiance to PAS and Perikatan Nasional.
“About 80 percent of Jeneri voters are for PAS. For example, all of our neighbours here,” Soraya said.
The voting trend in Kampung Jeneri reflects the majority of the constituency which is its namesake.
During the 15th general election, most of the oldest voters sided with PN in all 12 out of 16 Jeneri voting districts, with the exceptions being Felda Telui Timor, Kampung Bigia, Kampung Kalai and Padang Chichak.
However, most of the youths cast their ballots for PAS and PN by a sweeping amount.
With the older BN hardcore supporters in the constituency showing minimal signs of flipping to PN, it is the youths that Khizri needs to be on his side if he wants to stand any chance at winning.
When met by this news portal, Khizri admitted that his biggest challenge was fighting against the caretaker menteri besar’s popularity.
“I want to convince the voters and meet every one of them in Jeneri to explain my vision. My purpose in contesting and as a young candidate is to attract as many young voters to support me.”
The youth vote
However, there is one big problem. There are hardly any youths who live and work in Jeneri.
Many villagers Malaysiakini met said that youths within voting age have mostly left the district to further their education or seek better job opportunities, resulting in a lot of out-of-state voters.
While Khizri said he is also campaigning on social media to reach out to the missing youths, not having that personal touch could be a major drawback for the BN candidates as rural voters tend to prefer candidates they are familiar with.
“Yes, I am well known in the area but perhaps the young generation is not yet familiar,” he said.
Beyond not knowing Khizri personally, however, some like rubber tappers like BN supporter Mohd Zahir Nayan opined that many youths in Sik were in support of PN and Sanusi because they leave their hometowns prematurely in search of jobs out of the district and state.
“They don’t know of the issue the villagers and their parents face in the rural areas. They work out there and come back only once in a while.
“There are no job opportunities here, even my son lives in Rawang and works at Perodua,” he said when met at Kampung Betong, situated 10 minutes away northeast of Kampung Jeneri.
Like Zahir, many of the Jeneri voters Malaysiakini met who were not casting their votes for Sanusi lamented a lack of development within the state constituency.
The voters reported having to travel to Sik town - a 20-minute drive located in the Belantek constituency - to access the nearest banks and a supermarket.
When asked about this, Sanusi defended the alleged lack of development in the constituency.
He said that all twelve districts in Kedah were “clustered” to be developed in various industries - Islamic education (Sik), agrotourism (Baling), logistics (Kubang Pasu), tourism (Langkawi), and industrial (Kulim), to name a few.
“To say that development is through physical buildings, it’s a very old school of thought.
“Development through education is considered development. And Sik (where Jeneri is under) is classed under the development of Islamic studies,” he told reporters yesterday after a “Sembang Santai” event.
When asked about his campaign strategy to appeal to older voters to get a swing from staunch BN supporters, Sanusi refused to divulge.
“If I announce my strategy, they can overthrow me. But I am carrying out my strategy and will get the support of all groups in the Jeneri constituency,” he briefly said.
Much of Sanusi’s election campaigning thus far has been unbeknownst to media personnel beforehand, unless it is a ceramah or sembang santai (casual chat) programme in constituencies other than the one he is contesting in.
He told reporters on nomination day (July 29) that he had been campaigning for three years and that the public had already been informed about his achievements in the state.
However, his social media pages are active with videos of him meeting locals in Jeneri - with some of him doing odd jobs like manning a backhoe, or even as simple as a TikTok livestream of him eating durians.
This appeared to be part of PN’s strategy aimed squarely at youths, which retired cop Hashim Hussein found to be quite effective.
The Jeneri voter, who will also be casting his vote for BN in the state polls, said that PN knew how to bait the youths, citing the example of the coalition fielding Malaysian footballer Baddrol Bakhtiar in Gurun.
When met at a nearby stall just outside of Kampung Jeneri, Hashim told Malaysiakini that his vote for the state’s opposition wasn’t because he was particularly against Sanusi, but because he wanted to streamline the state government with the federal government.
“I’m pro (federal government), so if BN is helming it I would vote for them and likewise if it was PN. If (our state government) is the opposition, this results in unstable politics.
“The BN-Harapan federal government is still maturing, so a lot of its policies haven’t surfaced yet. But with stable politics (in the state), the country will also be stable,” he said.
However, he expressed that while he would cast his vote for the state’s opposition, it wouldn’t make much of a difference as Sanusi, who also happens to be the state’s caretaker menteri besar, was too popular among the locals in the state.
“Khizri has come on the field a lot, but many are not yet familiar with him. He has just climbed up the ranks, it hasn’t fueled anything yet. Perhaps he might (raise the stakes) in these next two weeks,” he added.
The contemporaries
Despite the mismatch in stature, Khizri and Sanusi are actually similar in more ways than one.
Both candidates were born a year apart in Sik and came from humble beginnings.
They both attended the Sik secondary school, with Khizri as the junior, and have the same alma mater at the Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Even their political careers shared some resonance.
Khizri, 44, was a special officer for a Kedah state executive councillor from 2004 to 2008.
After PAS - together with PKR and DAP - captured Kedah in 2008, it was Sanusi’s turn to walk in the state’s corridors of power after he was appointed as then-menteri besar Azizan Abdul Razak’s political secretary.
The appointment followed an unsuccessful bid by Sanusi for the Belantek seat in his first electoral showing.
He has since been PAS’ rising star, and quickly eclipsed Khizri.
Sanusi emerged victorious in the Jeneri state seat in 2018, with 46.3 percent of votes in a three-cornered fight against Umno’s Mahadzir Abdul Hamid and Bersatu’s Mohd Nazri Abu Hassan.
He then became menteri besar after PN took power in Kedah in 2020 following a political realignment which led to his and the coalition’s popularity skyrocketing in the state.
In the 15th general election, 67 percent of voters in Jeneri voted PN at the parliamentary level.
Among those who are now fully in Sanusi’s camp is 45-year-old Hazzlina Abu Hassan who will be voting for him for the first time in the state polls.
Hazzlina, who previously voted for BN in the 14th general election, said that PAS and Sanusi showed actual changes as compared to when BN was in control of the state.
While she said that she had no issues with BN, including BN and Harapan working together in the federal government, she felt more satisfied with PN as a whole.
“I just switched (to supporting PAS), but in PAS there is progress. When in BN there was no ‘function’ and no help in the kampung,” she said.
Her support for Sanusi extended as far as showing up on nomination day for the state elections, to cheer on the Jeneri incumbent.
Kedah goes to the polls on Aug 12. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.