Do-or-die battle in Chennah

 

It has been a free-for-all in the campaign for Negri Sembilan as accusations, ranging from the petty to the crazy and outrageous, fill the air.

ANTHONY Loke’s campaign in Chennah is on overdrive.

Flags and banners of Pakatan Harapan are everywhere, and his face is smiling from posters lining the narrow roads in the Titi new village.

It is a do-or-die campaign for the DAP secretary-general and the locals in Titi Kong, as the Chinese new village is known, greet him like he is a family member.

Chinese make up 44% of the voters in Chennah and Loke needs them to come out in full force for him on Saturday.

There has been disappointment, frustration and even anger among the Chinese about the government but they have not given up on Pakatan.

Titi Kong is a Hakka village where more than 60% of the residents are from the Siow clan.

Loke’s challenger John Siow Kong Choon was born and grew up in Titi Kong and speaks Malay like a Malay.

Siow is also the state MCA Youth chief but he is the underdog in this contest, whereas Loke, given his status as DAP leader and Transport Minister, is what columnist Jeff Ooi calls the “paramount leader” of the Chinese.

There is so much at stake for Loke in this David versus Goliath situation.

It has transfixed the country and everyone will be watching Chennah on Saturday night.

Chennah is the largest of the 36 state constituencies of Negri Sembilan and the outlying parts are largely Malay kampung where blue flags of Barisan Nasional flutter in the wind.

Loke has often been praised by Malays as a moderate and hardworking leader but he is struggling for the support of Malays who make up close to 48% of the voters in Chennah.

The Umno-PAS electoral arrangement has not taken off as smoothly as expected.

Cooperation between Malay parties is easier said than done and there has been resentment from the Umno base.

A Perikatan candidate apparently spent the first week of his campaign meeting up with local Umno figures in the constituency to appeal for their cooperation.

According to the aide of a former minister, some in Umno found it easier to collaborate with Pakatan because their seats do not overlap.

“They are upset that Umno not only gave away their seats but wants them to campaign for PAS,” said the above aide.

The mood is subdued, even cold, in seats that Umno ceded to Perikatan Nasional.

“The ground campaign is also not like before; people are following everything from their smartphones,” said former state MCA leader Siow Koi Voon.

It has actually been a much more quarrelsome campaign than what was seen in the Johor polls. A lot of the I-say-you and you-say-me is happening on social media and spiced up by comments from those watching on. Accusations, ranging from the petty to the crazy and libellous, have been flying back and forth.

However, the notion of Malay unity has gone down quite well with ordinary Malay voters. It appeals to their identity much more than Pakatan’s multi-racial narrative.

Politics is often a zero-sum game: what appeals to the Malays does not work for the non-Malays.

For instance, Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Noor’s controversial motherland remarks infuriated the non-Malays, but he is a Malay superstar and what he said resonated with the Malays.

Meanwhile, a group of young Malays, home for their university break and playing basketball in the village, have decided to vote for “the Chinese candidate who speaks like a Malay” and who joined them for a basketball game a few days ago.

“They said their parents had voted for Pakatan but they are not sure how their parents are voting this time,” said the above aide to a former minister.

The opinion out there is that Barisan and PAS are on course to win the election. But the reading is mixed on how many seats they can win and predictions swing from 20 to 25 seats for the winner.

Despite the Prime Minister’s caution not to touch on the palace crisis, many politicians could not resist referring to it and who can blame them? The election would not be happening if not for the palace crisis.

News that Tan Sri Dr Rais Yatim had been stripped of two state titles suggests that the crisis is not cooling down. Rais is the foremost authority on the Adat Perpatih customary law and is seen as aligned to the Undang Yang Empat.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is once again the driving force behind Pakatan’s campaign. His energy level is quite amazing for a 78-year-old and he seems to be everywhere, every day in Negri Sembilan.

He was in Chennah on Wednesday where he defended Loke who has been the target of all sorts of allegations.

There have been attempts to paint DAP as only favouring the Chinese but the party’s assemblymen have used their allocation for all races. For instance, a new courtyard roof at the surau in the Kepayan seat was made possible by the DAP YB.

DAP sees the attacks against Loke as an attempt to cut off the head of the “DAP dragon”. But wasn’t that what DAP did in Johor when they sent an army of campaigners to rattle Yong Peng, a state seat in the Ayer Hitam parliament seat held by the MCA president?

Pakatan’s survival in Negri Sembilan rests on whether it can secure Malay support.

It was not surprising that Anwar pulled out his trump card and released the Royal Commission of Inquiry report on the Tabung Haji scandal just days before balloting.

The move, accompanied by a veiled threat that those implicated would be charged, was a strategic attempt to swing Malay support.

The Prime Minister needs to stop Malay momentum from spreading to the next state election in Melaka. - Star