More Than Just A Friendly Fight
By Joceline Tan
A steady drizzle had drenched Gua Musang since dusk but the grand Chinese temple in a Chinese enclave known as Kampung Pulai in Galas was all lit up for the night.
On one side of the temple, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek was speaking in a tiny village hall before a rather enthusiastic group.
He had arrived with the Barisan Nasional candidate Abdul Aziz Yusoff; the Chinese here pronounce his name as “Achees”.
Aziz is tall, deeply tanned in that Kelantan way and quite ordinary looking. No one quite noticed him until Dr Chua called out his name and held his hand up in the air.
Aziz has one of those megawatt smiles that transforms his face from nondescript to likeable and suddenly everyone was like, “Oh, so this is Achees. Henshem (handsome)!”
MCA has a very established base in Galas and the group of about 50 or so who had turned up were obviously hardcore supporters who punctuated his speech with cheers and claps.
Dr Chua has a surprisingly strong voice and could be heard even without the aid of a microphone and in spite of the fact that about 200m away, a DAP ceramah was blasting away through four powerful loudspeakers.
The DAP had the use of the multi-purpose hall where 400 chairs had been laid out but barely a quarter of them was filled despite the presence of a top-draw speaker, namely Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
It was the rain and probably also that Lim, who is now part of the establishment, had to defend his own government rather than just attack, accuse and disparage like in the good old days.
The DAP leader had come all the way from Penang and his silver Mercedes-Benz with the PG1 plate was coated with a fine film of dust from the long drive.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who came a little later, emoted better with his audience by sticking to lighter subjects instead of heavy-duty issues.
Leaders from all parties have descended on this sprawling constituency of about 11,600-plus voters, each of them with their own purpose and agenda.
Even Tengku Fakhry Muhammad, the youngest brother of the Sultan, was seen in Galas on Friday night in a black MPV with the royal crest.
There is another exciting by-election happening over on the far-flung side of Sabah.
But Galas will be closely followed for its implications on PAS’ rule in the state; Umno’s chances in the general election; the political longevity of Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat; and the standing of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Gua Musang’s most famous personality.
There has been so much talk that the Malay vote has come back to Umno. Galas, where Malays make up 61.5% of the electorate, will be about putting the walk to the talk.
Galas is also unique for its orang asli who make up 10% of the electorate. Tengku Razaleigh, better known as Ku Li, had spent the first part of the campaign visiting the various orang asli posts.
On Thursday, the royal politician went to two orang asli settlements, where there are about 500 votes. It was a gruelling 12-hour trip in the rain and one of the cars in the convoy went down a ravine.
But every vote counts in a small area like this and he knew he had to make a personal appearance at each of the areas to secure their support.
Moreover, the 2004 and 2008 elections showed that younger orang asli have begun to accept PAS.
The orang asli are feeling the effects of logging in these parts over the last 10 years. What bugs them most is the feeling that the land they regard as part of their ancestry is being alienated to individuals and companies who are not even from Kelantan.
Despite its remote nature, Galas has the most number of Chinese in Kelantan after Kota Lama, a state seat in the Kota Baru constituency.
The Chinese sentiment is once again under scrutiny. This community of about 2,000 had been loyal to Ku Li until the 2008 election when they swung in favour of PAS.
Their sentiment is still hard to read two years after but Ku Li is planning to turn his focus to the Chinese voters over the next few days.
PAS, ironically, is banking on the Chinese vote to retain the seat. Datuk Wan Rahim Wan Abdullah, the PAS election adviser for Galas, said the party was relying on DAP to tackle the Chinese vote.
National issues have a different impact on the Chinese here. Development is not to be mocked and jokes about the proposed 100-storey Warisan Merdeka tower tend to fall flat.
The folk here want development, especially the sort that will improve their lives, bring in jobs and open up the area.
But the big concern of Chinese here is land. With many of them being rubber smallholders and vegetable growers, their chief complaint is that land applications have been hanging in the air for decades.
The PAS standard defence throughout the campaign has been: “We are processing the applications, it takes time.”
However, there is also a certain feel-good mood among the smallholders because rubber prices are up and some of them are making about RM1,000 a day.
The candidates, Barisan’s Aziz and PAS’ Dr Zulkefli Mohamed, have become rather secondary figures in contrast to the parties they represent and the bigger personalities looming in the background.
Yet, they are personalities in their own right. Aziz, 49, came from a dirt-poor family but he did well in school. He scored a Grade One in his SPM but had to get a job to support his family.
There were no shortcuts for him and he came up through hard work and self-achievement. He learnt public speaking and is often the emcee at political functions. But his career as a Kesedar manager is now working to his favour because he knows the area and the issues here like the back of his hand.
Dr Zulkefli, 44, studied medicine in Universiti Malaya. He is friendly but seems rather shy about the media glare although he has contested and lost twice against Ku Li.
He is also extremely overweight for a medical doctor and his weight has become an election topic.
His supporters, though, have turned it to his advantage by sending text messages saying, “Dr Zul bulat macam bulan”, meaning he is round like the moon, which refers to PAS. Wan Rahim has challenged him to lose 10kg by polling day where there will apparently be a weigh-in.
He has also been teased as a pengantin baru (newly-wed) having married a fellow PAS member only last year.
“People tried to match-make him over the years but these things are fated,” said Wan Rahim.
Dr Zulkefli has also made light of his size by offering to take on his opponent in a tug-of-war where size matters.
When the campaign began, everyone was talking about this being a fight between Tengku Razaleigh and Nik Aziz. But Nik Aziz fell ill the night after the nomination and has taken a backseat so far.
But, thankfully, no one has fallen through a bridge or into the sea like the PKR candidate in Batu Sapi.
Ku Li, in spite of his relaxed air, is actually extremely focused on what lies ahead. If he seems rather less urgent than the rest of the Umno big-wigs, it is because he has been in these parts for so long. Many of his ties with the community go back to the day when his late father was Mentri Besar.
His father had personal ties with the Chinese in Kampung Pulai. The headman who refused to cooperate with the Communists during the Emergency years was beheaded together with his family members and their heads were staked along the road.
“My father relocated the rest of his family to Besut for their safety. Kampung Pulai is the oldest Chinese settlement in the country and it was very special to him,” said Ku Li.
Some of the campaign banners have pictures of Ku Li from the 1970s when he was still young, cute and very powerful. He is still elegant and his complexion is as rosy-cheeked as ever but the years have taken their toll in other ways.
He turned up for a futsal tournament in Sungai Terah, wearing a pale yellow Polo shirt, cream slacks and Reebok sneakers.
Sungai Terah is considered a black area for Umno. “At one time, we could not come in but now we have 400 Umno members here,” he said.
On the other side of the field, the Muslimat PAS was having a ceramah for the women.
The young vote in urban areas has been decidedly anti-establishment but in rural Malay areas, the younger voters have been leaning away from PAS. The futsal thing, organised by Youth and Sports Minister and one-time Ku Li aide, Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek, was aimed at this younger cohort in the area.
Much has been made of the fact that this seat is not going to change the equation in the state and that it would be a friendly contest.
But every election, no matter how big or small, is important and PAS is as determined to hold on to Galas as Umno is to regain it.
PAS even postponed the Budget sitting of the State Legislative Assembly, which was to have been opened by the Sultan on Nov 1, and declared a public holiday for polling.
But this by-election is a little more critical to PAS than Umno. PAS has held Kelantan for 20 years and is now being held accountable in a way it has not experienced before. It has been forced to ride on national issues while the Barisan has been needling it on local issues, which the home crowd relates better to.
Behind all that gentlemanly language of a friendly fight, the two sides are desperate as anything to win in Galas. - The Star
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