4 theSun | FRIDAY OCTOBER 9 2009

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In Taman Sg Ujong, it’s bread-and-butter issues that matter

by Hemananthani Sivanandam
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PORT DICKSON: The trees in Taman
Sungai Ujong in Ladang Sua Betong,
about 20km from here, are strung
with green-and-white PAS flags
that belie the sentiment of the
residents.
Some 20 families who reside in
the oil palm estate are staunch BN
supporters.
To them, issues such as the
deaths of suspected car thief A.
Kugan and political secretary Teoh
Beng Hock or the controversial cow-
head protest take a back seat; they
are more concerned with bread-
and-butter issues.
T. Poovammah, 48, who has lived
on the estate for more than 20 years,
said she will only vote for BN.
“Who else can help me and my
family? My children, who are study-
ing, and I get loan facilities from the
government, so what’s the point of
voting for other parties?” she said.
She said although things are dif-
ficult, she supports BN because she
and her husband want their children
to have a better life.
Their combined household in-
come is RM800 a month, and almost
half during rainy weather.
Lorry driver P. Youtheyaaroy, 42,
said he has voted for BN for many
years, “since my father’s time”.
However, although he supported
BN, he does not like MIC. “I never
criticise BN but I don’t like MIC, they
are too arrogant,” he said.
He is a member of the Indian
Progressive Front (IPF), which sup-
ports BN but is not a component
member of the coalition.
He said MIC members who vis-
ited the estate recently were snob-
bish and did not go door-to-door to
canvass for votes.
“Who needs the votes ... they or
us? If Gerakan and PAS can come
and talk to us personally, why can’t
they?” he asked.
According to a study by research
firm Ilham Centre, 34.8% out of 594
respondents polled said voters will
reject BN because it is perceived as
a racist party while 52% said voters
would reject Umno because of the
perception that it was corrupt.
The study, conducted on Sept 15
and 16 on voters in Bagan Pinang,
also showed 59.6% of the respond-
ents said the “Isa factor” was more
important than current Mentri Besar
Datuk Seri Mohammad Hassan in
the by-election.
Ironically, the survey also found
64.6% of the respondents felt
Mohammad Hassan’s performance
is good, while 44.4% felt BN had a
good chance of winning the by-elec-
tion with a bigger majority.
About 80% also felt that Tan Sri
Isa Samad is the better candidate in
the by-election.

briefs Winning more important: Najib

Postal voting goes on smoothly
PORT DICKSON: Postal voting went on smoothly
at the Army Basic Training Centre (Pusasda) and
at the Port Dickson district police headquarters
yesterday.
Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman
Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said polling started
at 8am and went on smoothly, witnessed by repre-
sentatives of Barisan Nasional and PAS.
Some 2,000 soldiers are expected to cast their
votes at Pusada.
Wan Ahmad said polling stopped at 5pm and
will continue today.
There are 4,604 postal voters in Bagan Pinang,
of whom 4,571 are soldiers, 31 policemen and two
voters who are overseas.
PAS says its workers attacked
PORT DICKSON: PAS said yesterday nine of its
by-election campaign workers were attacked.
Its Bagan Pinang by-election director, Sala-
huddin Ayob, said the workers were attacked
at three different places, including the com-
mand centre in Batu Tiga.
“One of them was attacked by a person
armed with a Samurai sword at about 3am
today (Thursday) in front of the Teluk Kemang
police station,” he said.
“He was with a group of campaign workers
but the others managed to escape.”
PARIS: Winning in the Bagan Pinang state
by-election is more important to the Barisan
Nasional (BN) than the size of the majority
obtained, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said.
“There’s no need to talk about winning
big or small, as long as (we) win. Winning is
the important thing,” the prime minister told
Malaysian journalists on Wednesday after his
four-day visit to France.
He said that to win, the BN must work very
hard and carry out an effective campaign to
get the message across to the people.
He had been informed that the BN cam-
paign was running smoothly and had received
encouraging response but the effort must
continue till the end.
The Bagan Pinang seat fell vacant follow-
ing the death of Azman Mohammad Noor of HESUN
MOHD NOR/T
KAMARIDUAN
the BN on Sept 4. The BN’s Tan Sri Mohd Isa
Samad is facing Zulkefly Mohamad Omar of
PAS in the by-election on Sunday.
On the amendment to the Umno constitu-
tion, Najib, who is also the Umno president,
said it was aimed at promoting transparency “I feel it’s important that Umno mem-
and openness and reducing unhealthy prac- bers have absolute right in the election of
tices like money politics in the party elections. high posts, which is the spirit behind the
The final decision on the proposed amend- constitutional amendments,” he said.
ment would be made at the Umno extraordi- On Makkal Sakti, Najib said he had
nary general assembly next week, he said. explained to MIC that the support of the
He said he was open to the proposal as the Indian community for the BN was not
Umno president and did not want to hide be- confined to parties within the BN and there
hind the quota system or stringent conditions. were parties outside the BN like the IPF,
which supported the coalition.
“These parties are also interested in sup- y meet army
o) and Zulkefl
porting the BN so why don’t we accept them Isa (top phot t of po stal voting
the star
even though they are not BN members?” personnel at
yesterday.

Can Isa pull in

the Indian and Chinese votes?
Analysis by Tim Leonard
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
CAMPAIGNING for the Bagan
Pinang state by-election is in its
final stretch. With Umno fairly
certain of capturing the Malay
votes in the constituency of
13,664 voters, the outcome of
the by-election may hinge on
the non-Malay voters.
Malays make up 8,577 or
62.8 % of the voters, Indians
2,834 (20.7%), Chinese 1,498
(10.9%) and others 755 (5.5%).
Based on the election sta-
tistics, some 80% of the Indian
voters and 65% of the Chinese
voters backed the Opposition
in the last general election,
but less than 15% of the Malay
votes went the same way.
So is the diminutive 59-
year-old Barisan Nasional (BN)
candidate Tan Sri Mohd Isa
Abdul Samad, popularly called
“Doraemon”, ready to win the
hearts and minds of those who
have lost faith in BN?
BN has strong hopes that the
former Negri Sembilan mentri
besar, who is trying to make a
political comeback, can deliver
the non-Malay votes and seal a
victory for the ruling coalition
after a string of defeats in previ-
ous by-elections.
In fact, the MIC and MCA
election machineries are work-
ing round the clock to convince
the non-BN supporters and
fence-sitters Isa is the man
they should vote for, and the
message appears to be getting
through.
theSun spoke to several
non-Malay voters to hear what
they felt about supporting Isa
and BN, and the results show a
swing in support for the Umno
politician.
“Isa is clearly a leader who
relates to all races,” said C.L
Wong, a voter from Bagan
Pinang. “We have known him
for a long time, since he was
the mentri besar. We feel very
connected to him.”
S. Perumal, another regis-
tered voter, said: “Wherever he
goes, he engages the Indians
and the Chinese, so much so
that people feel connected
and attracted to what he has
to say.”
Come Sunday night, Isa will
know if these expressions of
support convert into much-
needed votes for the BN.
Isa’s candidacy has not
been without controversy. His
tainted background – he was
stripped of his Umno vice-
presidency after being found
guilty of money politics by the
Umno disciplinary board in
2005 – meant that there was
some pressure on Umno to pick
another candidate. Despite this,
many local folk have no prob-
lems forgetting his past.
“Isa was found guilty within
Umno. It’s not that he was
charged in court and found
guilty,” said S. Anbalagan.
“So what? In fact, there are
other leaders who have many
skeletons in the closet and
have done worse things.”
PAS and its Pakatan Rakyat
partners face an uphill task in
getting their message about
corruption and bad govern-
ance across to the voters in a
by-election campaign devoid of
any real issues.
So they have taken to playing
up sensitive issues and erecting
billboards with pictures of Teoh
Beng Hock and A. Kugan, to stir
the emotions of the voters. But
so far, despite good turnouts at
the nightly ceramahs, the senti-
ment on the ground is leaning
towards Isa.