If the people of Bukit Selambau have any stinging memory of the past, they would certainly vote for change.

The Kampung Sungei Getah 2 located in Sungai Lalang, about 15km from the booming town of Sungai Petani is a case in point. As my mentor had said, ‘…this village has the dubious distinction of probably being the only settlement in a former prime minister’s home state without access to piped water, electricity or even a public telephone’.

We were then part of a voluntary group called Kumpulan Kemajuan Masyarakat which travelled from Penang to this village to assist the villagers to obtain their basic living rights.

Numerous attempts of over twenty years to resolve their plight were undertaken. Many times, the villagers had to sacrifice their meagre wages just to painfully travel to the state secretariat mainly to beg for piped water and electricity.

After many years of attempts, finally the villagers succeeded in obtaining two standing pipes for the 200 residents, mostly children and grandchildren of the former Aberfoyle Plantation workers.

Like many fragmented estates in Kedah, the ownership of the land has changed hands many times and finally the land was left to the villagers.

One of the estate workers, KS Govindan (who was the MIC branch chairperson and former municipal councillor) became one of the registered landowners through an ex parte originating summons that resulted in an order by the Alor Setar High Court on the grounds that the original land titles were lost.

While owning only 3/20 of the land, Govindan occupies the very plot of land where the villagers are located. In order for electricity to be supplied to the villagers, we needed permission from Govindan for TNB to be granted access to the land.

However, appeals to Govindan were to no avail. Later, appeals to state exco member V Saravanan was a bigger blow as he simply paid no heed.

A meeting with the mentri besar proved futile except for tears rolling down the villagers’ eyes and their aching legs. The attempt to resolve this longstanding issue with the menteri besar was pointless.

He never made any attempt to meet the villagers although letters were sent requesting him for meetings. Neither were his aides comforting.

Simply said, the matter was passed off as an MIC issue as most villagers are Indians. Pre -election promises were also made by the MIC but only lure their votes.

Together with the villagers, we organised press conferences which had been highlighted in the media. However, this did not stir the leaders to be answerable to these villagers, save for empty pre-election promises.

The biggest blow came when the villagers made attempts to see MIC chief S Samy Vellu who portrayed overwhelming concern over their protracted plight and promised to resolve their requests for piped water, electricity and public telephones.

However his incompetent, not to mention rude secretary, treated our follow up calls as if we were dirty beggars. The blow is still stinging.

Till today there are no solutions in sight and the people there are still living as if the nation had never experienced independence. They are still without electricity, telephones and don’t have enough piped water stands.

The leaders the villagers had voted for never gave two hoots about their plight. It is a well-known fact that some villagers have died of snake and scorpion bites. While many suffer endlessly for lack of a public telephone.

The state assembly persons have failed then, their members of Parliament have failed them, the mentri besar has failed them, their ethnic-based party had failed them,while the utility companies remain silent with their hands tied.

With this stinging past, it is a wonder that MIC can walk with such candour in Bukit Selambau. To read about its candidate trying a hand in tapping a rubber tree is a slight of grave disregard to the past.

One cannot help but wonder how if faith and fate of these people will have a turnaround before tomorrow’s by-election?