New Year’s in the air in Tenang

Analysis
By Joceline Tan

Election fever is competing with the Chinese New Year mood in Tenang.

THERE are only two more days to polling but Chinese voters in Tenang are probably more concerned about the countdown to the Chinese New Year on Feb 3.

Little wonder then that the Tenang campaign has taken on a Chinese New Year flavour.

Billboards of Barisan Nasional’s Mohd Azhar Ibrahim have sprung up overnight, showing him in a traditional Chinese jacket of red, blue and gold brocade.

He is shown smiling rather bashfully, and offering a pair of tangerines.

Other billboards show him holding a blood-red coloured Chinese New Year card printed with the word “cai” or prosperity.

But PAS’ Normala Sudirman had gotten a headstart to the festive game.

Pamphlets of her in a red tudung and an exotic Chinese costume were out two days after nomination.

The former teacher has had a sharp learning curve and journalists have found her confident and articulate.

PAS officials initially tried to control media access to her but loosened their grip because Normala is a natural at fielding questions.

The final push has begun and election fever is in the air.

Both sides have gone all out to sell their candidate to the Chinese votes and anything to do with the Chinese New Year is a good idea.

With the Malay and Indian ground more or less sealed in by Barisan, the emphasis has been on the Chinese sector.

The word going out is that Cabinet members have been asked to come down to canvass for Chinese vote.

They have been told to concentrate on the three Chinese locales of Bandar Labis Tengah, where Barisan secured only about 26% of the vote in the general election, Bandar Labis Timor (42%) and Labis Town (39%).

Even Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin did his walkabouts in these parts where the Chinese shopkeepers greeted him like an old friend.

He goes back a long way with many Johoreans because he used to be their mentri besar.

When DAP brought PAS Mursyidul Am Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat to Bandar Labis Tengah on Wednesday night, they were not sure how the elderly ulama would go down with the Chinese crowd.

The rain had not stopped since the night before and Nik Aziz spoke for barely 10 minutes but he made full use of this time.

He spoke of Kelantan’s Chinese-style mosque in Rantau Panjang, the country’s longest sleeping Buddha in Tumpat, and the pair of green lanterns with Chinese words from a supporter that were hanging in his office.

It was Nik Aziz’s deft political touch at work.

But the ground has been too quiet, something that many journalists covering the Tenang by-election have noted since the start of the campaign.

The Barisan campaign has been deliberately low key, especially in the Malay areas.

Mentri Besar Datuk Ghani Othman has insisted on adopting the Galas model, which worked so well for Barisan.

As a result, the Johor Barisan machinery has been running the show minus the noisy and sometimes counter-productive presence of outstation campaigners.

But the puzzling part is the thin ceramah crowd outside of the town. Are they uninterested or have they made up minds?

Or is it because these early-to-bed and early-to-rise populace simply has no time to stay up late for political rhetoric?

Moreover, as many people have pointed out, this is the first by-election in decades and the town is unlikely to see this many political stars ever again.

Local politicians speak of how the trains from Singapore were filled with Malaysians working in the republic streaming home to vote in 2008.

DAP is hoping for a repeat of this and an advertisement in a Chinese daily yesterday showed a middle-aged couple outside their house, waiting for their children to return to vote.

It was a one of those soft messages to empty nest families in Tenang to get their children working in Singapore and elsewhere to come home on Sunday.

Both sides are locked in a rather ironic contest. PAS knows it is fighting an uphill battle with the Malay vote but their partner DAP is going all out to pad up the Chinese vote.

Barisan, on the other hand, knows it is almost there with the Malay votes but is still struggling with the Chinese votes.

The weather has not been very cooperative and there has been continuous rain and strong winds.

Angry winds toppled Barisan billboards a few nights ago while the giant banner outside the PAS headquarters was almost ripped off.

Nature, as one campaign worker joked, was “very fair” to both sides.