PELANGAI ROUND UP | In Kampung Chemomoi, some 3,000 residents are living the dream promised to them by the then-Abdul Razak Hussein administration.
They are moderately prosperous thanks to the Felda land scheme, which has all the basics required for a dignified life, leading many to return the favour by voting for BN for decades.
That all changed in 2022, which saw 46.4 percent of voters in Felda Chemomoi voting district choosing Perikatan Nasional, edging BN by just eight votes.
This was no isolated case. The neighbouring Felda schemes in Sungai Kemasul and Sungai Kemahal similarly saw BN and PN neck and neck - a fact that is well-known among the dozens of Felda settlers interviewed by Malaysiakini.
Those disgruntled with BN for years finally have found a worthy competitor to relocate their "fixed deposit" - a term often used by BN leaders in the past to describe how fiercely loyal Felda settlers, some in their third generation, were.
"PAS' Cikgu Kasim (PN candidate Kasim Samat) has his own followers. It’s the same group of veteran Felda folk who had voted for him in the last general election.
"What we are worried about now is the younger generations, many of whom are outstation voters.
"We expect that the majority won by 'arwah' (the late Pelangai representative Johari Harun) might be reduced this time, with more preferring PN," said 42-year-old Ismahadzir Mohd.
Ismahadzir is a second-generation Sungai Kemahal Felda settler who rooted for BN.
Given the close-knit nature of the Felda communities, political allegiances are difficult to hide.
According to those interviewed, while the majority of those who actually reside in the settlement are still loyal to BN, the younger crop who reside in other towns and cities are not.
Azmi Mohammad, 48, who is the president of NGO Kami Anak Felda, said the granular voting results showed that younger voters were the ones fuelling the PN swing and were disinterested in any progress brought by the previous lawmakers to their settlements.
"In this area, 'Stream 4 and 5' are the problem. These are the younger people working in the cities.
"They should assess how far we have come as a community and what our late assemblyperson had done for us in eight months," he said.
Many residents of Pelangai, from both Felda and non-Felda areas, spoke highly about the services rendered by Johari to his constituents even before he became its assemblyperson until the day he perished in the ill-fated Aug 17 plane crash near Shah Alam.
Voters young and old admired Johari, better known as Datuk Jo among them, for his determination to help the people. Some of them believed this was a factor why he could get higher votes from Pelangai constituents compared to Liow Tiong Lai in GE15.
"When any disaster hit like flood or fire, you would surely see him coming to the scene hours later.
"I remember one time when there was a flood in Pelangai, Datuk Jo was in Kuala Lumpur and he returned immediately.
“Just less than two hours, it happened, he was already wading through the water to check on those affected," said a voter, who only wanted to be identified as Lan.
The three Felda settlements in Pelangai also had the benefit of being represented by Adnan Yaakob, who was Pahang menteri besar between 1999 and 2018.
While Adnan's legacy clearly left a mark among the older generation, BN activists and leaders told Malaysiakini that it has been an uphill task to swing the young who are now siding with PN.
"This is why you see us working like cows," one local BN activist told Malaysiakini.
Adnan's successor Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, perhaps under pressure, even committed the faux pas of jokingly telling BN voters to ensure that their children do not come back to vote if they were going to back PN.
Over at the PN camp, the tempo of their campaign in these rural parts has been surprisingly slower than the twin by-election campaigns in August, despite having a much smaller gap to close.
Their nightly ceramah events have seen uncharacteristically low attendance despite some big names in their line-up.
Unlike their August campaigns, PN was no longer calling the by-election a "referendum" on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim but instead urging voters to increase the opposition representation in the Pahang legislative assembly.
However, the two main punching bags for PN remained the same - Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and DAP. PN's common theme was that the former was someone that Malays could not trust, while the latter was antithetical to the Malay-Muslim agenda.
The silver lining for BN so far has been the sizeable non-Malay community, who make up 28 percent of Pelangai constituents.
In the Orang Asli community of Sungai Gapoi, most interviewees told Malaysiakini that they, perhaps viewing themselves as the true BN "fixed deposit", were staunchly behind BN, which the granular 2022 election results could attest to.
As for the Chinese and Indian communities, DAP's Young Syefura Othman, who is the MP for the neighbouring Bentong constituency, has been delegated the task of delivering the votes from the towns of Telemong and Manchis.
The biggest challenge, Young Syefura told Malaysiakini, was to ensure turnout as the proportion of out-of-town voters who have voting addresses registered in Telemong and Manchis are even higher than in the Felda settlements.
"Insha-Allah, Pakatan Harapan leadership especially DAP and myself, are working hard to ensure that our voters understand who they should vote for and why now they have to vote for BN as we are together in the unity government.
"I believe they can understand this, and of course, we want all voters to come out and cast their ballot this Oct 7," she told Malaysiakini.
Pelangai goes to vote on Oct 7. - Mkini
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