A group of 'cheeky' Machap villagers had placed an advertisement in a national Chinese daily to thank the DAP for their participation in the recent Machap by-election.

The advertisement says that there was no development in the Machap Baru new village for the past 50 years, and with the DAP contesting in the by-election, development goodies from the BN came in within days.

This shows that the DAP's participation was the reason for their unexpected windfall.

"We are very lucky to have these instant changes to our life. Thank you DAP!" the advertisement in the Sin Chew Daily added.

When contacted, one of the 'grateful' residents told malaysiakini that if DAP did not take part in the by-election, BN would never work hard to develop the area.

"If DAP was not here to fight against them, I doubt there would be any development projects from the BN. It seems that the MCA will only come to help us when there is an election."

During the election period, he pointed out that BN was busy building the 'Datuk Wira Poh Ah Tiam Recreational Park', but questioned why [the late] Poh Ah Tiam did not build the park when he was in the position to do so.

He said the former assemblyperson had made many promises to residents during the last general election, but did not keep them after the elections.

He pointed to the wet market in Machap Baru as an example of how the residents had been deceived for the past 10 years.

According to a malaysiakini checklist, 9,623 voters in Machap received a total of RM6 million within two weeks.

Now, windfall for Ijok

Over in Ijok, residents were surprised to witness an instant improvement in their town over the past few days.

For the past 10 years, they had lodged several complaints about the poor condition of the roads in Ijok and demanded that the Batang Berjuntai waste dumpsite be closed down, but the complaints had fallen on deaf ears. Surprisingly, all these wishes came true within the last few days.

According to Oriental Daily , the local council was busy beautifying the small town and repairing roads. Trucks could be seen along some of the main routes in Kuala Selangor ferrying materials for construction works.

However, some residents complained that road maintenance work was causing traffic congestion in the area during busy hours.

Road safety conscious motorists were delighted to see new lamp posts being put up at some of the junctions as it had brightened up the area.

A resident, Lim Jit Liang, related his disbelief when he heard that 100 new lamp posts were put up within a day during the Machap by-election.

"But with the by-election in Ijok now, I really saw the lamp posts being put up within a day. Now I believe they can really do things fast, if there is a motive to do so," he added.

Watch 3-minute video - 'On the road to Ijok' below