GE13 WATCH Enjoying his retirement in a single-storey brick house, Kamis Man, a settler in Felda Kemasul, Pahang, has been hit by a continual water shortage since last year - all because of a leaking pipe in his area.

Although Kamis believes his MP, Liow Tiong Lai, who is also the health minister, is not likely to fulfil the promise to fix the leakage, the MCA man still enjoys his full support.

According to him, the Bentong MP is ‘ lembut ' (soft-spoken) and has a likable personality - a sharp contrast to the perception elsewhere that Liow is weak, indecisive and lacks charisma.

NONE The same goes for Kamis' state representative Adnan Yaakob, the Pahang menteri besar who may perhaps be better known for his hot-headedness and vulgar hand gestures.

"Tok Nan likes to joke with us," Kamis ( left ) laughed as he sat on his rattan settee, when asked about the Pelangai assemblyperson who has led Pahang for 14 years.

Both Liow and Adnan enjoy high popularity in the Felda settlement located some 70km from Bentong, the main town in the constituency.

Felda settlers make up about 20 percent of the 11,136 voters (as at 2011) in the Bentong parliamentary seat, a significant number that no political party can afford to ignore.

Located in the southwest of Pahang, Bentong is a semi-rural constituency and had four state seats under it - Bilut , Ketari , Sabai , Pelangai. Though BN retained all four state seats in 2008, only Adnan took Pelangai with a comfortable majority of 2,970 votes, bagging 5,406 votes or 68 percent of the votes cast.

NONE A visit to Pelangai by Malaysiakini last month revealed that the menteri besar takes it upon himself to invite his constituents - almost half Felda settlers - to state government events to boost his popularity among the voters.

Known to be BN's vote bank, each household in Felda settlements nationwide received a windfall of RM15,000 in cash and 800 shares after the Felda Global Venture Holdings (FGV) was listed last May.

PAS has been working hard to penetrate the Felda areas through a hard-hitting campaign against FGV, which is spearheaded by Anak, a PAS-linked NGO. But its impact has been limited.

Most of the Felda settlers in Bentong, as Malaysiakini learnt, have not even heard about Anak.

"The local reaction to Anak is lukewarm... because we have no resources like the BN to offer land and money to the settlers," Bentong PAS chief Abdul Hamid Bahatim conceded.

Survivor of 2008 tsunami

Liow, a Malacca boy, survived the 2008 political tsunami that left MCA with only 15 MPs. He retained Bentong for the third time - this time with a majority of 12,549 votes, the fourth highest among all MCA representatives.

Nevertheless, his majority in the mixed seat was reduced by a little-known opponent, G Ponusamy from PKR by 4,290 votes, down from 16,839 votes in 2004.

bentong ge story Local residents, including the Chinese, describe the MCA deputy president as a "nice guy", despite his ineptness in handling the firing of teargas into the Tung Shin Hospital during the Bersih 2.0 rally two years ago.

"Generally, the Chinese community here thinks that Liow is a friendly person, easy to approach and who often gives generous allocations to local organisations," said Bentong DAP Youth chief Chow Yu Hui, who is tipped to be the DAP candidate for the Bilut state seat.

Chinese New Year banners showing a smiling Liow are still visible in the Chinese-majority towns of Bentong and Karak.

"If Liow does not attend an event, his private secretaries will," said Soong Ah Kow of Kampung Baru Telemong, a Chinese new village located some 40km from Bentong town.

bentong ge story According to the locals, each Standard One pupil in Bentong district will, on the first day of school every year, receive a schoolbag, an illustrated dictionary and stationery from Liow.

Stickers bearing Liow's portrait with the message "Wish the best for your study and a bright future" are pasted on the cover of the dictionaries.

However, an anti-establishment sentiment is increasingly being felt among Chinese voters, who make up nearly half of the voters in the Bentong constituency.

On Feb 3, the last Sunday before this year's Chinese New Year, a time when most usually do last-minute shopping for the celebration, the DAP was stunned by the 1,000-strong turnout for its ceramah in Bentong.

Among the various issues raised at the ceramah, environmental concerns, including the Lynas rare earth refinery at Gebeng, Kuantan, resonated well with the crowd.

The ceramah reached its climax when Himpunan Hijau chairperson Wong Tack, the most recognisable face in the anti-Lynas movement, took the stage.

MCA's Achilles' heel

Although Bentong is some 200km away from the rare earths plant, it remains the Achilles' heel for Bentong MCA.

Local MCA division chief Ho Khai Mun, who is also a Pahang state executive councillor, concedes that the green movement will have "a certain impact" on Chinese voters, but he also stressed that the government has put in place a robust monitoring system.

azlan "The prime minister has even promised that should there be any evidence proving (the refinery) is dangerous, the government would close it down ," Ho told Malaysiakini over a discussion at a coffee shop in Bentong.

To mitigate this problem, MCA is banking on the full support of Malay voters, who make up 43 percent of the voters in the Bentong parliamentary seat.

DAP strategist Liew Chin Tong said the recipe to capturing this MCA stronghold would be "cross-voting" between the Malay and Chinese voters.

"Cross-voting means that Malays vote for DAP while Chinese vote for PAS... if BN loses all the mixed voters seats, then we will have the chance to rule Putrajaya," Liew said.

The opposition is also pinning its hopes on first-time young voters, most of whom work in Kuala Lumpur, the federal capital that is just 70km from Bentong, to help disseminate the issues raised by the opposition in their hometown.

Closely watched battleground

Bentong was contested by the DAP and PKR in 2004 and 2008 respectively. It is learnt that the local PKR would have no qualms if Pakatan nominates a DAP candidate for the seat this time, who stands a better chance of winning.

lim guan eng and wong tack With DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng's announcement ( left in photo ) on Tuesday that Wong will contest the parliamentary seat under the rocket logo, there is little doubt that Bentong will be one of the closely watched battlegrounds in the coming 13th general election.

The anointed candidate was well-received at a ceramah last night in Bentong following the announcement.

In 2008, more voters backed the opposition in the four state seats - three contested by DAP and one by PAS - compared with the parliament seat in which PKR fielded a relatively weak challenger.

If the votes for the opposition parties in the state seats are considered, then Liow's majority would be slashed to 5,105 votes, a marked reduction from his 12,549-vote margin. With Wong as its candidate, DAP will definitely give Liow something to worry about in Bentong, which for decades has without fail sent a MCA strongman to Parliament.

However despite his national profile, 'green warrior' Wong will still face an uphill battle, for he needs to convince the rural Malays, who are less exposed to the Lynas issue, to back his environmental agenda.

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