Bagan Pinang : Campaign or Camping?

I have been regularly doing day trips to Port Dickson since the past 2 weeks and I saw the building up of crowds in this resort town with my naked eyes.

Conclusively my question is; are these crowds which constitute of UMNO campaigners from all the states really doing their job? Do they really go to the voters and solicit support for the votes BN really need?

I, like many locals there have not been comfortable watching these tourists loitering around without purpose in the town and make the locals feel disturbed of their daily lives with traffic congestions along more than 10 miles of the coastal road.

The actual voters whom I met claimed that they have not been visited by BN campaigners.

“This is an eye sore for us here and I am patiently waiting for these people to leave. These people disturb my daily activities by the ridiculously heavy traffic congestions. It costs me more than an hour to fetch my children from my in-laws house after work. This is preposterous man!!” one of them said crossly.

“These people never change…so typical of UMNO members.” said another. “Dio oghang buek mato kito sakit tetapi mintak kito undi dio orang. Bolum tau laiie den nak undi atau tidak,” he continues.

The other person whom I used to meet long ago said, “Kau tengoklah waktu magrib bro, they never respect the magrib time and the prayer time. Masjid sodang azan, dio oghang mundar mandir topi jalan. Kalau tak nak sombayang duduklah dalam khemah. This is the kind of UMNO campaigners we have. Monyomaklah dio oghang ni bro.”

“These people from Wilayah Persekutuan come here in uniform! Come on bro, we are enough watching people with uniform in PD (referring to thousands of military personel in PD). They behave like gestapolah!”

This short conversation tells a lot. I have no choice but to agree to their views. UMNO activists come to PD just to loiter around without purpose and they are purely susisidised tourists.

The same happened in Kuala Terengganu Parliamentary by-election early this year and the culture repeats in Bagan Pinang.

I have been writing my view in this blog that UMNO by itself is not winning in Bagan Pinang but it is Isa who is in actuality going to be the ultimate victor.

PAS on the side is working hard for this by-election and its participation in the election should not be looked upon lightly.

They are really on the ground and we can evidently see that their workers are not seen hanging around like those UMNO fellas. They are going around house to house and support for the party is growing.

If the voting date is extended for another week a win for PAS is not an impossible occurrence.

I can see that the non-Malay voters are crucial as we are not sure whether they are going to choose the National Issue or the local concerns.

The Indians are fed with Kugan issue but Isa seems to be well accepted by the Indians as this former MB has been personally liked by the Indians for past decades while he was the Menteri Besar.

In conclusion, while Isa is on the lead I hope the BN workers would change their style and culture of approaching the voters as the PR workers are seen to be more adaptive to the local do’s and don’ts.

The voting is just tomorrow and within a day things and situation can change. We must admit that UMNO is always contracted to the habit of failing to manage successes.

That is all for the day.


Thanks……………………………………………………………Aspan Alias