FOCUS: TELUK KEMANG, NEGERI SEMBILAN

 source of news: Malaysian Insider (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/tough-choices-in-teluk-kemang-from-both-sides-of-political-divide/)

 

Tough choices in Teluk Kemang from both sides of political divide

By Sugasini Kandiah
March 27, 2013

The next general election is expected to be the closest fight to form the new Malaysian government. And several seats across the nation are likely to be heated battles with the slimmest of majorities. The Malaysian Insider takes a look at some of these hot seats in what will be an intense election for control of Malaysia.
The roads leading to Teluk Kemang are empty on weekdays but clogged up on weekends. — Pictures by Saw Siow FengPORT DICKSON, March 27 ― As Malaysia waits with bated breath for the prime minister to announce his final candidate list and declare a general election, for the people of Teluk Kemang the suspense reaches a whole new level.
Unlike in many other constituencies where residents more or less know who their potential candidates may be, in this area it is anyone’s guess.
On the Barisan Nasional (BN) front, the fight seems to be split three ways.
First, there is Teluk Kemang’s former MP and Port Dickson resident Datuk S. Sothinathan who, in spite of his 2008 defeat to current PKR MP Datuk Kamarul Baharin Abbas, has continued to serve residents and appear at local functions over the last five years.
When met during an interview in Port Dickson, Sothinathan said, “I have never closed my office even after losing because I have a duty to serve. Winning and losing is part of the game but I believe that staying here has won me the support of the people. You have to make sacrifices in order to have an edge over others.”
A lawyer by training, Sothinathan’s main claim to fame came when he was suspended for speaking up in Parliament against the government’s attempt to derecognise degrees from Ukraine’s Crimea State Medical University where many young Malaysian Indians were studying.
Sothinathan has stayed on to serve the constituents despite losing in Election 2008.In spite of Sothinathan’s service track record and popularity among Indians, news reports suggest that MIC president Datuk G. Palanivel will elect his ally and party secretary-general, Datuk S. Murugesan, to contest in this traditionally MIC-held seat instead.
In a phone interview, Murugesan, who lost badly in 2008 when he contested in Subang, refused to comment on the possibility of his candidacy in Teluk Kemang. However, he has been quoted elsewhere as saying that he has “not been doing any groundwork” in the area as he has not yet not been made a candidate.
Given the internal feud within the party, Sothinathan says that he is banking on the prime minister to pick him as a candidate even if that decision is not necessarily what MIC wants.
Still, the final decision on whom BN will choose to place in Teluk Kemang may involve a twist of sorts as insiders predict that Datuk Seri Najib Razak will eventually pick former Negri Sembilan Menteri Besar and current Bagan Pinang assemblyman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad to helm BN’s battle in the constituency.
This seems highly likely after a survey around Chuah, Lukut, Port Dickson and Linggi, the four state assembly seats which along with Bagan Pinang form the Teluk Kemang parliamentary constituency, showed that the current FELDA chairman, who had at one-time been suspended from Umno for money politics, had been hosting events to meet the rakyat well outside his Bagan Pinang jurisdiction.
Isa is indeed a popular choice in Teluk Kemang, especially among the Malay constituents who credit the former MB for bringing development to the area. One reason why Sothinathan may have lost in 2008 was due to protest votes against Umno for not allowing Isa to run.
Isa has organised events in recent weeks to win over support from residents.One Port Dickson resident told us that Isa had organized many events in the last few weeks where scores of people turn up and queue for cash handouts.
As for who the Opposition will field, the answer is not straightforward either. According to residents, current MP Datuk Kamarul Baharin is hardly seen in the area. Many do not even know his name let alone recognise his face. That he has accomplished little over the last five years does not help either.
In an interview with Kamarul, he said “It’s hard to do much since Negri is not a Pakatan state. The state government controls funding and projects that we submit often do not get approved.”
Should the staunch ally and former MCKK classmate of Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim become PKR’s candidate again, it is likely he will face an uphill battle winning the same votes that came so easily to him during the 2008 election tsunami.
Hence, the rumour mill churns that PKR will field a retired general instead to accommodate the constituency’s 8,000-strong army voter base, a group which did not support the opposition in 2008. With its main operations centre situated a stone’s throw away from army quarters, PKR seems to have an established strategy for winning over Teluk Kemang’s soldiers.
Over the last few years, the party has been actively recruiting some of the country’s top retired army personnel. Bigwigs include Royal Malaysian Air Force Brigadier-General (Rtd) Datuk Abdul Hadi Abdul Khattab and former army chief General Tan Sri Md Hashim Hussein, also a former MCKK classmate of Anwar Ibrahim’s.
The KTM Seremban-Port Dickson freight service was stopped in 2009.Abdul Hadi, in particular, is already on the ceramah circuit in Teluk Kemang as part of PKR’s efforts to “educate” and increase awareness among those in the army. He would be a likely candidate.
With so many parties and politicians eager to wrest this seat, the question is: What do the residents of this 70,000 strong constituency really want?
Home to Port Dickson, a once bustling seaside haven in the 80s and 90s, a place often featured in the essays of schoolchildren describing how they spent their holidays, today, the town is a sorry sight.
When asked why this prime tourist destination had deteriorated so drastically, many residents point to the lack of upkeep of the town’s beaches.
According to Kamarul, “There was no proper planning with development, no plan to keep up… How does PD maintain itself as tourist destination where there are oil refineries everywhere all around and the sea contains sewerage? Today, portions of the beach extending out to the sea have even been allocated to cronies. Malaysia is the only place in the world that I know of where the sea can be privatised!”
The KTM freight service that came directly to Port Dickson’s beaches was suspended in 2009 and the newly-built PD bus station barely sees any buses.
Yet, by and large, the people in this constituency are fairly content. Many residents interviewed, with the exception of businessmen and shopkeepers of course, did not exhibit a sense of nostalgia for a return to Port Dickson’s heyday.
In fact, one of the biggest complaints by residents concerned the traffic jams that take place nearly every weekend when people from nearby cities come down here for an outing.
Sothinathan does not think that a complete revival is necessary for residents either. “Tourism alone can’t sustain the local economy. We need new developments, new industries to create employment opportunities here.”
And this might be something the constituency’s older and more conservative Malay residents actually want given that beach parties and excessive displays of revelry have stirred protests in the past.
Nonetheless, the decline in tourist numbers has led to many abandoned projects and unoccupied apartments. During the weekdays especially, most shopping areas including the new PD Waterfront are virtually deserted.
In this semi-urban constituency, Malays make up 41.2 per cent of the voters while Chinese and Indians form 33.8 per cent and 21.1 per cent respectively. Many also fall into the older age group as Port Dickson is home to many pensioners.
The Chinese residents of Teluk Kemang, like Chinese communities elsewhere in the country, are likely to continue throwing their support behind the Opposition. An issue that is particularly controversial for the Chinese here is the loss of Bukit Pelanduk’s pig rearing industry, which was the biggest pig farming area in South East Asia at the time, due to the 1999 Nipah virus outbreak.
Much anger is still harboured against the BN government for failing to provide farmers with adequate compensation. Additionally, the collective pig farming area that had been shut down during the epidemic has yet to be reopened a decade later causing continued loss of income.
For the Indians of Teluk Kemang, many of whom reside in the area’s large Sime Darby estates, BR1M handouts as well as the deputy prime minister’s recent visit to launch a large-scale low-cost housing project for Ladang Tanah Merah workers may swing some votes.
Never mind that the land is totally bare and nothing has actually been built. Never mind that the project was promised to the people some two decades ago. If BN puts forth the right candidate, it should be able to count on the substantial Indian vote.
As elections loom, the struggle in Teluk Kemang will undeniably be interesting to observe ― how will the candidates be chosen and how in turn, will the rakyat respond?