SG BESAR POLLS | INTERVIEW It only took two months after Azhar Abdul Shukur was appointed as Sungai Besar division chief, before he was given the chance to take a shot at being an MP.

The Amanah Sungai Besar by-election candidate is up against formidable competition - Meru assemblyperson and PAS Selangor chief Dr Rani Osman and BN’s Sungai Panjang assemblyperson Budiman Mohd Zohdi.

But according to the 51-year-old, he has been ready for 36 years.

“I have been ready for politics since I was 15 years old, when I was still in secondary school. I was already an opposition party member then,” he told Malaysiakini.

He said he was an anti-establishment student who always argued against his teachers, especially when it came to criticising the government.

On one occasion, he said, his father was called to school to take him home.

“I took my friends to the surau to tell them about the problems in the government. A teacher heard us and busted us, took me to the office and called my father,” he said.

Awkwardly for teenage Azhar, his father was a BN stalwart and even served as BN’s Tanjung Karang MP for one term and Sungai Burong assemblyperson for two terms.

But his father never stopped his political interests or changed his leanings, and is supporting him fully in the by-election.

“My father knows that I have not been with BN since very young. We disagree on many things, but he knows that I am doing what’s right,” he said.

Farming hardships

He said he joined the opposition movement to correct the government, and it is for his father that he returned to Sungai Besar to serve his hometown.

The father of three completed secondary school in the area, before heading to Karachi, Pakistan to pursue his university education in theology.

Since then he has served as a Arabic language teacher in a private school, worked in Cambodia, and travelled the region doing humanitarian work.

“Then I returned to Malaysia. My father started becoming ill three years ago so I am often in Sungai Besar to visit him.

“As I spent more time here, I started to think that something needed to be done for my hometown so I started an NGO.

“I started assisting residents, but I only managed to conduct two programmes before the by-election was called. I saw this as an opportunity to serve,” he said.

Sungai Besar is a semi-rural constituency, where residents mostly rely on the fishing or agriculture industry for their livelihood.

Azhar’s home is near the golden rice fields of Sungai Besar, but his family was never in agriculture.

Even so, growing up in an agricultural community taught him the struggles faced by farmers and their families.

“I still remember two good friends of mine - Ismail and Abdullah Sani - who often skipped school when we were at Sekolah Menengah Sungai Besar. But they never wanted me to know why.

“When I met them as adults a few years ago, they told me, ‘Ustaz, when were in school we often skipped school because we had to be in the fields to make money.’

“This is a problem not just faced by the Malays, but also the Chinese community,” he said.

While rice cultivation is mostly dominated by the Malay community, the Sekinchan rice fields in Sungai Besar is unique in that it is predominantly farmed by the Chinese.

Access to information

He credits his father not only for allowing him to obtain tertiary education and a better life, compared to his peers, but also for teaching him the value of freedom and access to information.

Sungai Besar folk are often deprived of information, he said, not just of national issues but also things which could directly impact their daily lives like the various assistance provided by the Selangor government.

Similarly, he said, there is very little awareness of who Amanah is.

Access to information is something close to his heart, and this freedom will be something he will champion in Parliament if elected, he said.

In particular, he is concerned over controls on the media.

“Why is news barred? This is a problem because if the media is not muzzled, we will know if someone does bad things.

“This information needs to go to the public. Someone in difficulty will not be able to realise he is in dire straits.

“Today we are in difficulty but people don’t know it, and this is the case with 1MDB and the goods and services tax,” he said.

Sidestepping hudud

The same can be said about the hudud, he said, where information provided to the electorate on this issue is not complete.

Even so, he is wary of stating his own views on the thorny topic which has been at the forefront of the election campaign.

“I represent Amanah and Pakatan Harapan. Each issue will be discussed among us and I leave it to Pakatan Harapan to answer this issue. I will adhere to the coalition’s decision,” he said.

Amanah, a PAS splinter party, is also faced with the awkward position of going against their former allies in PAS in a three-cornered fight, which he feels could test the fledgling Amanah’s strength.

“Those who are against BN will not vote BN, just like those who are against Amanah will not vote for us.

“But with PAS contesting, people might decide not to vote at all and this means we will not know how people actually feel about us,” he said.

Ever a hustler, Azhar is now a businessman and has various businesses in tourism, consultancy and video production.

On the electoral roll, he is a Temerloh voter as he once lived in the Pahang constituency.

“I have three homes and I shuttle between Temerloh, Kuala Lumpur and Sungai Besar.

“I may not be able vote this time, but I have many family members who will vote for me,” he quipped.