KJ anxious about contesting 'pitch-black' Sungai Buloh

In his Sungai Buloh rally, outgoing health minister Khairy Jamaluddin shared his anxiety in contesting the “pitch-black” seat where BN has lost three times in a row.

BN supporters in Sungai Buloh welcomed Khairy enthusiastically last night, where many supporters asked for a selfie with him and shouted “KJ hidup”, “KJ menang”.

However, when addressing the supporters, Khairy repeatedly reminded them that Pakatan Harapan’s candidate won Sungai Buloh by more than 20,000 votes and he is the underdog.

He confessed that he was feeling nervous before going to the event to meet the BN machinery.

“I haven’t felt so nervous for a long time, as if this is my first time contesting in an election.

“Driving from my residence to here takes 15 minutes. However, it is not enough for me to calm myself down.

“Because this is not a white nor a grey area, this is a pitch-black area, just like myself,” he said.

However, he said he became confident when he arrived and saw the support from the audience.

Sungai Buloh (previously named Subang) was MIC’s seat, but the seat was lost to PKR’s Sivarasa Rasiah in 2008. 

Since then, PKR had been in control of the mixed-raced seat with 66 percent Malay voters, 22 percent Chinese, and 11 percent Indians. In the last election, PKR won with a majority of 26,634.

In 2018, BN lost in every polling district in Sungai Buloh.

Don’t become a kampung party

In his speech, Khairy tried to give the machinery a morale boost by showing his empathy towards the local BN branch after the seat was “surrendered” by the central leadership.

He stressed the importance for Umno and BN leaders to contest in urban seats to avoid the party from becoming “a kampung party”.

“Because this is an urban area, I don’t want the urban seats to be neglected by the BN leaders.

“(They would say) forget about Sungai Buloh, we don’t have to do anything in Sungai Buloh, we will lose for sure.

“If all of BN and Umno only contest in rural areas which are safe and no one offers to contest in urban areas, we will become a rural party, a kampung party.”

He added that even though rural areas are important, BN should not “surrender all urban seats without a fight”.

Khairy also urged the Sungai Buloh BN machinery to work towards a seemingly impossible victory instead of being free riders even though the coalition’s leadership may not expect to win the seat.

“I should have gone to a safe seat, I was promised the health minister post if I win, but I am here because I don’t want to let you down,” he said.

Khairy was moved to Sungai Buloh after being forced to make way for Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan to contest the Rembau seat.

PKR earlier said it will field its deputy information chief Ramanan Ramakrishnan in Sungai Buloh, while its incumbent MP Sivarasa Rasiah was dropped.

Although Harapan won Sungai Buloh in 2018 with a convincing 56 percent of votes cast, it was reported that PKR is reviewing its candidate after Khairy was announced as BN’s candidate.

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