BN SNUBBED: How the tide has changed in Kluang

AFTER the DAP's announcement on March 30 that its elections strategist Liew Chin Tong would be the party's candidate for Kluang, a small group of party leaders including Lim Kit Siang walked nonchalantly into the Kluang Country Club. Members, who were having their beers after finishing their round of golf, gave a thunderous welcome and offered the visitors the hospitality usually reserved for VIPs.

Three days later, it was the turn of Johor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Ghani Othman to turn up at the club with trappings of pomp and protocol. But the response was subdued even though it is election time when you could get an unexpected windfall. Ghani announced a RM100,000 grant to the club from the state government.

These contrasting events reflect how the battle is shaping up in what was considered a bastion of the MCA and the Barisan Nasional (BN). The donation although welcomed, was met with cynicism – if he wants to give, why should we refuse?

One of the doyens of the club is Lee Kaw. He's 74 and was DAP's sole MP in Johor for just one term – elected in 1978, after which the BN through MCA has held on to the seat.

Last Saturday, he made his first political speech in a crowded shop house in Kluang after 26 years. But Lee Kaw still retains the fire in his belly despite staying away from politics since 1982.

Lee Kaw came out of "retirement" on a request to oblige an old comrade, Kit Siang, to assist the DAP in shoring up support for Liew to wrest the Kluang seat. And the thunderous reception and applause he got when he finally spoke at the launch of the party's operations centre was indicative of his influence on the people. It was not just from Chinese constituents. The response he received when he popped by for a coffee at the nearby Kopi Tiam showed his popularity.

"Those days, we campaigned for our voices to be heard in Parliament or the State Assembly. We talked about the cost of contracts, the issue of land and Chinese new villages. There were 86 such villages in Kluang which were in need of development," says Lee Kaw who was party treasurer when Kit Siang was the head honcho of the party.

Issues have since changed after all these years. Corruption, economic development and cost of living have taken centre stage. Locals say that Kluang has been left out of development. And of course, winning this seat is significant in Pakatan Rakyat's (PR) proposed march to Putrajaya.

"We have been 'colonised' for 26 years. While towns like Muar and Batu Pahat have enjoyed so much development, we can only say that our progress has been stagnant," says a local businessman.

The people of Kluang say that they have to send their children either to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore for tertiary education as there are no institutions of higher learning.

"Kluang has lost out. It is at a standstill. We got to ensure its growth. My three children are in Kuala Lumpur and when they wanted to buy their cars, I insisted they should buy them in Kluang. We need to support the local economy," says another businessman.

Liew, who won the Bukit Bendera constituency in Penang in 2008 with a majority of 16,000 votes, has decided to leave his "safe" seat to vie for a much tougher Kluang seat in an effort to help PR win as many parliamentary seats as possible for the ambitious march to Putrajaya.

And he comes with impressive credentials – an Asian Studies honours degree from the Australian National University and a regional integration masters degree from Universiti Malaya and has led several think tanks, including Research for Social Advancement and the Penang Institute.

Liew says that "if 30% of Malays vote DAP and 30% Chinese vote PAS" – it would be a winning formula to wrest Kluang and other seats and form the new government. Kluang has 83,000 voters. There seems to be acceptance of the DAP by the electorate. The two state seats of Mengkibol and Mahkota – with BN and PR holding one each make up the Parliamentary seat.

This was evident when DAP secretary- general Lim Guan Eng was in Kluang where he was mobbed by people of all races. He happily posed for them and signed autographs – an indication that politics has transcended the racial boundaries which had existed in the past.

Guan Eng says there are many issues which have to be addressed in Johor. He says that the state, although selling water to Singapore, is charging Johoreans three times the rate the Penangites are paying for their water.

"It is a reflection on how the state is managed. Of course, corruption and land alienation are important," he says.

The sale of Majidee Army camp has taken centre stage in the many Pakatan-organised public talks.

In 2008, BN's Datuk Dr Hou Kok Chung beat DAP's Ng Lam Hua with a majority of 3,781. However, four years earlier, the BN candidate Datuk Hoo Seong Chang won with a thumping 18,698 majority. The drastic drop in the majority was the result of the political tsunami which swept the country five years ago.

BN has yet to announce its candidate. Although Hou is the incumbent, speculation is rife that he will be replaced by the Gan Ping Sieu as the MCA candidate.

However, last Saturday, the former hosted a dinner at the Kluang Chinese Chamber of Commerce which could indicate he is the preferred one. Whoever the candidate, the battle of Kluang will turn out be an interesting one where it may not be the choice of the individual, but the choice of the party that the people want to represent them in Parliament.

-thesundaily