Mutton curry, radio DJs to lure estate votes

By S Rutra

KUALA KUBU BARU: A battle is taking shape to win the the hearts and minds of some 1,300 voters in the Nigel Gardner Estate for this Sunday's Hulu Selangor by-election.

Barisan Nasional has entrusted Federal Territories and Urban Well-Being Deputy Minister M Saravanan to deliver the 733 Indian votes while the Kemaman Umno division machinery will zero in on the 408 Malay voters.

The estate also has 158 Chinese voters.

Meanwhile, Pakatan Rakyat is relying on lawyer KA Ramu's close rapport with the estate workers to garner the votes.

In the last general election, Ramu, who stood under a DAP banner, lost by a mere 400 votes for the Kuala Kubu Baru state seat.

Saravanan has stationed himself in the estate since nomination day (April 17), while MIC grassroots leaders have been carrying out a door-to-door campaign, focusing more on the women voters.

Sarees, rice and hampers

Local resident G Manimangai said sarees, rice and hampers are given to the families on a daily basis.

The 43-year-old housewife, who has been appointed as Pakatan's local representative, said a major feast is in store for the residents tonight.

“MIC is slaughtering eight goats for a dinner function, and the crowd will also be treated to a show by personalities from THR Ragaa (a popular Tamil radio station),” she told FMT.

In view of this, Manimangai said a Pakatan function, which was set to witness the presence of Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, has been postponed to avoid any untoward incidents.

She also revealed that only 300 or so registered voters are left in the estate and the neighbouring Bukit Tagar estate, while the rest have sought greener pastures elsewhere, with some having gone as far as Singapore.

Manimangai has been working with other Pakatan volunteers to track down some 1,000 voters to get them to turn up at the polling station at the Niger Gardner Tamil school on Sunday.

She also conceded that it will be an uphill task to sway voters, especially with the powerful BN machinery headed by Saravan put in place.

The deputy minister is also being assisted by some 100 volunteers from the Malaysian Makkal Sakti Party, headed by their leader RS Thanenthiran.

One of the volunteers, who had come from Penang, told FMT that he was being paid RM50 per day to help out.

The Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency, which has about 65,000 voters, is a Malay-majority seat, with a significant number of Indian voters (19%).

BN employing underhand tactics

A BN campaign manager, who wished to remain anonymous, told FMT that estate folks were now more receptive towards the ruling coalition.

"We are getting better support from the locals for our programmes during the last few days and we hope their support will translate into votes as well,” he said.

However, Ramu disagreed, accusing BN of using underhand tactics such as blocking the access roads to certain estates.

The lawyer said during his door-to-door campaign, he received complaints that electricity and water supply to 32 households identified as strong supporters of Pakatan were disconnected.

"I need to verify this with the estate management before bringing it up with state excutive councillor Dr Xavier Jayakumar," he added.

Meanwhile, voter A Mariadas, 46, lashed out at MIC deputy president G Palanivel for failing to make good on numerous promises during his four terms as a MP for Hulu Selangor.

"Only recently we have been getting round-the-clock electricity supply but the water quality is very bad,” he said.

Better assistance from state government

In a related development, FMT visited the Bukit Jernih estate and found that voters there favoured Pakatan.

In the 2008 general election, out of the 716 registered voters in the area, 365 voted for the late Zainal Abidin Ahmad from PKR, while 247 backed Palanivel.

Palanivel was defeated by 198 votes in the election. The seat fell vacant following Zainal's death on March 25.

K Sinniah, 53, who works as a mandore, said people in the estate are enjoying better assistance from the Pakatan-controlled state government.

"Most of us were not told about these things when we were with MIC, but now we are being visited more frequently by Pakatan representatives," he said.

On Sunday, PKR's Zaid Ibrahim will take on MIC information chief P Kamalanathan.