Tasked to contest after retirement call, Dzul faces difficulty regaining support

In making his political debut, outgoing finance minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz was parachuted into Kuala Selangor with the BN flag to storm the fort of former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad.

But Dzulkefly, a toxicologist-turned-politician, is a reluctant opponent.

Before being named as Pakatan Harapan candidate, he had already announced his retirement. Still, Dzulkefly complied when his party, Amanah, called on him to defend the seat.

This could partly explain what Malaysiakini observed to be a rather lacklustre campaign for the incumbent, especially in the more rural parts of the semi-urban constituency located about 75km from Kuala Lumpur.

On paper, Harapan’s chances in Kuala Selangor are positive, with Dzulkefly winning a comfortable 43 percent of the votes in 2018.

But on the ground, the reception for Tengku Zafrul may be troubling for Dzulkefly.

Last Saturday (Nov 12), at Tengku Zafrul’s “Jamuan Mesra Rakyat” in Kampung Telok Piah, many residents were spotted wearing BN’s blue shirts to welcome and take pictures with Zafrul.

Typically, attendees clad in party T-shirts are party campaigners but residents there said they are not Umno members and had supported Harapan in GE14 when visited by Malaysiakini last Sunday (Nov 13).

But since then, voter Wan Mohd Salleh said, the villagers have been facing difficulties applying for aid from government agencies and the incumbent MP’s service centre has not been much help.

So, they are there to push for their demands as a collective.

“When we are demanding as a group, instead of individually. It means that there are many votes (still to be won) here,” the 47-year-old businessperson said when met by Malaysiakini the next day.

Willing to give ‘new guy’ Zafrul a chance

To lobby for their needs, the villagers formed Persatuan Kebajikan Kampung Telok Piah three months ago and invited Zafrul to the village during the campaign period.

They hoped that Zafrul will fulfil their demands after he is elected, including an allocation to buy a mini excavator which costs RM47,000 to help the village expedite their grave digging works.

Currently, the village has four grave diggers who use their bare hands and tools to do the work.

One of the gravediggers is an 80-year-old man, and when there are multiple deaths on the same day, the gravediggers are completely spent by end of the day.

Salleh knows there is a risk that Zafrul may also be hard to reach once elected, but they believe as a new face, he will be more spirited to serve Kuala Selangor.

“If we can’t find Zafrul after the election, and his constituency staff doesn’t provide service, then next election we just say bye-bye to him.”

Kuala Selangor is a mixed seat, with 65 percent Malay voters, 21 percent Indian voters and 13 percent Chinese voters. In GE14, Dzulkefly won with 8,498 or about 14 percent of the votes.

Besides Dzulkefly and Zafrul, PN’s Mohd Noor Mohd Sahar and Pejuang’s Mohd Shaid Rosli have thrown their hat in the electoral race too. Shaid is the Jeram assemblyperson.

‘Dr Dzul’s team complacent’

51-year-old villager Hamdan Abdul Hamid was among those who took a photograph with Zafrul.

He complained that since Dzulkefly was appointed health minister in 2018, he was not responsive towards the constituents, so this time Hamdan has decided to vote for “someone who can bring changes to the community”.

“Maybe he (Dzulkefly) won a lot of votes in the last election, so he became comfortable and stopped coming to our village. Many complaints were not handled by his officers,” he said.

Even when Dzulkefly was health minister, voter Nathan Shamugam Gothan said, medical services to locals were subpar.

He lamented that at the nearest public hospital, Tanjong Karang Hospital, patients still wait for hours in the emergency department - even though this is common in most under-resourced public hospitals across Malaysia.

Nathan was also not happy with the lack of public transportation in Kuala Selangor, which he said Dzulkefly did not help improve.

He even blamed the incumbent for not sorting out the shortage of eggs and poultry.

No allocations for Kuala Selangor

In response, Dzulkefly's campaign team has distributed a document detailing how much federal allocation he has received and spent on Kuala Selangor.

This includes RM2.2 million when Harapan was in power and RM1.7 million allocated as part of Harapan’s memorandum of understanding with the Ismail Sabri Yaakob government, which was not fully disbursed to the MP's office before Parliament was dissolved.

It also showed that under Muhyiddin Yassin’s premiership, Kuala Selangor received no allocations despite Zafrul being finance minister.

"Zafrul should be asked about his contribution to Kuala Selangor as finance minister in 2020 and 2021, when the people were badly impacted by Covid-19!" the statement read.

But voters like Hamdan and Nathan were more attracted to Zafrul’s manifesto, especially when he promised to establish a service centre in all three state constituencies under Kuala Selangor to manage constituent complaints.

The duo voted in the Telok Piah district polling centre, where Dzulkefly won 58.2 percent of the votes. In 2018, the Umno candidate only won 27 percent of the votes.

Dzulkefly is now Amanah’s strategic director but his first-time contesting Kuala Selangor was under the PAS banner in 2008.

Amid the political tsunami in Selangor, he won with a slim majority of 862.

In 2013, he contested again under the PAS flag but lost to BN. He returned in 2018, under the Amanah banner, and when Harapan won, he was made health minister.

Former campaigner switching sides

In the polling district of Bukit Badong, 49-year-old businessperson Suhaidi Mat Salleh echoed views that Dzulkefly paid less attention to Kuala Selangor after being appointed as minister.

Suhaidi sees himself as a swing voter, who even helped Dzulkefly to campaign in the last election. This time he will “try Zafrul”.

Suhaidi believes Dzulkefly is a nice and gentle person, and his gentlemanly image and pious attitude moved many villagers, including PAS and Umno members in 2018.

In the last polls, Dzulkefly won with 40 percent of the votes, while BN trailed with 36 percent.

“Previously Dzulkefly always came to the village to attend weddings or funerals, when people were having difficulties he would come to help as well.

“Sometimes he even came to the mosque to pray at 5am. Those PAS members see him as a very pious leader, therefore they are willing to vote for him.

“But once Dzulkefly became federal minister, he was rarely seen on the ground, and this does not sit well with constituents,” he said.

Retirement announcement sent wrong message

Suhaidi said Dzulkefly’s retirement announcement last June also gave the impression that he lacked political drive, and is a reluctant candidate.

The lack of banners promoting Dzulkefly in the constituency further strengthened the impression, Suhaidi added.

In contrast, Zafrul actively showed up in Kuala Selangor a few months before the Parliament was dissolved, and his banners can be frequently seen in the constituency.

“The voters will think (Dzulkefly) doesn’t want to be a politician anymore, so when he suddenly comes back (to contest), people will think: ‘Aiyo, why did you come back? That day you said you are not contesting anymore’.

“The voters have an impression that Amanah doesn’t have young leaders who can fight against Zafrul, so they had to field Dzulkefly again.”

The voters who talked to Malaysiakini seemed unconcerned about the saying “voting BN equals voting Zahid” and are more concerned about bread-and-butter issues affecting them directly.

Hamdan said he personally hoped that the BN president will not be the prime minister, and he doesn’t reject the Harapan chairperson Anwar Ibrahim becoming premier.

But he thinks that Kuala Selangor’s constituents shouldn’t mix up overall national issues with what they may gain with Zafrul as their MP.

“I don’t want Zahid to be the prime minister, I even wished he would lose in his seat, but it doesn’t mean that us voting Zafrul is supporting Zahid, that is incorrect.”

Urban voters loyal to Harapan

In more urban areas of the constituency like Puncak Alam, voters are more loyal to Harapan.

Ethnic Malay and Chinese voters there also share their doubts over “outsider” Zafrul parachuting in.

There is also the factor of outstation voters, with those living and working in Harapan strongholds in the Klang Valley, who would easily make the one-hour drive home to vote.

But the possible kingmakers are the ethnic Indian voters in the constituency, and both candidates have dedicated a significant part of their campaigns to courting this demographic.

For example, although it has been weeks since Deepavali, they still hosted several Deepavali dinners and events last week.

Candidates have thrown carnivals and offered free services, like health checks and motorcycle repairs, to attract votes to their side.

Largely, however, Zafrul’s events appear more lively and well-attended, an indicator perhaps of sunny skies for him on Nov 19.

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