Mahkota: While BN scrambles for Chinese votes, PN swoops in for Malays

MAHKOTA BY-ELECTION | As polling day nears, BN is hard at work to ensure it has enough support to retain the Mahkota state seat in Johor.

While its campaign targets all demographics, BN and its bedmates in the federal coalition government appear to be most concerned about Chinese voters and the possibility they may boycott the by-election.

In the meantime, Perikatan Nasional is swooping in to snatch away Malay support from BN.

PN had already snatched three Malay-majority polling districts - Kampung Melayu I, Kampung Melayu II, and Sri Tengah - and won the early vote from BN during the last general election, and is moving to expand.

One such polling district where PN is hard at work is Kampung Baru, a tiny village in Mahkota less than 7km away from Kluang town, with more than 3,000 voters, about 89 percent of whom are Malay.

Umno’s deep roots

The village, like many Malay enclaves in Johor, has a deep history with Umno.

“Umno used to give us a lot of help… Umno built these roads and the streetlights here,” said a 66-year-old shopkeeper who wanted to be known as Kak Ngah, while gesturing to the busy main road outside her shop.

Off the main road in a populated area beside palm plantations, Mansol Esa is enjoying his retirement from the army.

With a cigarette in hand, the 55-year-old expressed confidence that BN would retain the district, which he described as a coalition stronghold.

He admitted that some might be unhappy enough with Umno to swing their votes towards PN but dismissed them as a trivial minority.

“Even before, people said in the last election that BN would lose, but if you look at this village, it is a BN area,” he said.

Cracks emerge

During the March 2022 Johor state election, BN comfortably won the Kampung Baru district with 71 percent of the votes, while PN secured 22.8 percent, and Harapan trailed with 5.9 percent.

But just eight months later, during the November 2022 general election, in balloting for the Kluang parliamentary seat, BN’s vote share in Kampung Baru dropped to 51 percent while support for PN rose to 38.1 percent, with Harapan still far behind at 10.4 percent.

The hard numbers suggest that some 100 voters defected from BN, a drop of less than 10 percent.

However, another 400 voters who did not vote in the state election cast their ballots for PN in the general election - indicating that support for the opposition is growing.

Support for PN increased across all age groups in the 2022 national polls, most notably among younger voters. The coalition bagged almost 50 percent of votes from the last two polling streams in Kampung Baru, which is for the youngest set of voters.

‘I need to see a change’

One voter who appeared to have abandoned BN is Tumilah Suratman, a 67-year-old who runs an eatery along the same main road where Kak Ngah’s sundry shop is located.

“I have been voting for BN for years now, but I need to see change.

“If you look at PN, it governed for only 18 months, but you could see changes.

“With Umno, it has been years, but it has remained the same. No changes,” she lamented, accusing the party of nepotism and cronyism.

She claimed to have been a Wanita Umno branch leader and committee member back in the 1980s.

However, she alleged that as she grew older, the party began to sideline her, casting her aside like a “dirty rag”.

As for Kak Ngah, she expressed a longing for the old days of Umno, when former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak was in charge. She is an undecided voter now.

She told Malaysiakini she was confused as to who she should vote for.

As far as she’s concerned, it’s more important for her to worry about the rising cost of living and how this affects her life and livelihood.

Her shop is sandwiched between a closed shop lot and her home. Despite its strategic placement on the main road, she doesn’t see many customers.

The shutters of the closed shoplot next door concealed an eatery that she used to run, until the pandemic, when the business became too unprofitable to maintain.

“Customers said it (the food) was too expensive, other places are cheaper,” she said, pointing to the closed shop lot.

“It’s a good thing I don’t have to pay rent. What about those who are forced to?” she said.

PN focusing on Kampung Baru

Boosting support and capturing Kampung Baru has been a key focus of PN, according to by-election campaign director Azmin Ali, who said the polling district was his first stop in Mahkota even before nomination day.

Azmin told Malaysiakini that PN campaigners have been going door-to-door in Kampung Baru and other districts, which he claimed have seen positive results.

“We went from house to house based on the analysis that we provided to our machinery that they must go directly to the locality in that area and try to meet as many as possible.

“So, our strategy is to maintain our base and expand. And so Kampung Baru, of course, is one of them that we should not just maintain our support, but we’ll try to get and secure better support,” he said.

As of Sept 25, he estimates that the grassroots members would have met at least 1,000 voters in Kampung Baru, about a third of the population there.

“It looks good for PN in that (Kampung Baru) polling district,” Azmin said.

The elephant in the room

When Malaysiakini surveyed voters at Kluang Parade, the news portal met a 48-year-old who only wished to be Nor.

While browsing through clothes at a department store, she revealed that her social circles of 20 to 30 people have all flipped from BN to PN.

“Because of (Umno president) Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, we don’t like him,” the private sector worker said.

She declined to elaborate further.

Zahid’s popularity declined after Umno suffered its worst-ever electoral performance in the last general election.

His decision to align the party and BN with Pakatan Harapan after the election has also been a point of contention.

Since the general election, both BN and Harapan have been struggling with Malay support despite continued efforts to win them over.

In 2023, during the twin Pulai and Simpang Jeram by-elections in Johor, PN made notable gains despite lower turnout and ultimately losing the contest to Harapan, suggesting that they had managed to sway BN supporters.

In the case of Mahkota, Azmin expressed lofty ambitions for PN to win all 18 polling districts this time.

“Hopefully, with additional support from other states and other divisions in Johor, and with the strength that we are seeing now (with) our machinery on the ground, God willing, we should be able to secure better votes, better support, and we should be able to secure Mahkota,” he said.

He claimed that PN has also received a positive response from non-Malay voters.

Mahkota heads to the polls this Saturday.

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