A news item in Malaysiakini highlights the DAP ceramah held in Ipoh last night where the DAP candidate of Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan, often known as cili padi hit out at the Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi for being incompetent in his job. She took the Prime Minister to task for the rising crime rate in the country and his poor attendance in the Dewan Rakyat as well as his frequent travel abroad had affected his performance as Prime Minister.

With the conclusion of the nomination process for the 12th General Election, candidates are officially allowed to campaign and of course, one of the features of election campaigns is the poster wars. Election candidates will put up posters, banners and buntings at strategic locations to made themselves known to the mass.

Over in PJ Utara and PJ Selatan parliamentary constituencies, many posters of election candidates were put up overnight. Posters of Tony Pua Kiam Wee, the DAP candidate for PJ Utara are seen in many parts of the north of SS2 and Section 19 in Petaling Jaya when I was driving around earlier this morning.

In Section 17 Petaling Jaya, posters of BN’s Donald Lim Siang Chai, candidate for PJ Selatan and Dr. Lim Thuang Seng, the Bukit Gasing state seat candidate, dominate the scene. Also noticable are posters of DAP’s Bukit Gasing state seat candidate Edward Lim Poh Lin. A catchy banner is at the traffic lights junction of Jalan 17/21 for Edward Lim. The catchy phrase says “Even Dr M says we need opposition”.

Well, this is only the beginning of the poster war. With another 12 days to go before campaigning ends, many more posters and buntings will dominate the entire Malaysia.

Today is the Nomination Day for the 12th General Election with polling to be conducted on Saturday 8 March. In the Telok Intan parliamentary constituency, where I am a registered voter for this seat, a battle of 2 horses are set for the next 13 days of campaigning.

Why do I describe it as a battle of 2 horses? Horse is pronounced as ma (马) in Mandarin. And the two candidates in a straight fight for the Telok Intan seat are:

1. Datuk Mah Siew Keong (BN - PGRM) (Incumbent)
2. M. Manogaran (DAP)

Datuk Mah Siew Keong is the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Telok Intan. He won the seat in the 1999 and 2004 General Elections. He is also the Youth Chief of Parti Gerakan and at the time of the dissolution of Parliament, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries.

M. Manogaran is the immediate past president of the Malaysian Tamil Education and Research Foundation, contesting for the first time under a DAP ticket.

The Telok Intan parliamentary constituency has been represented and won by Parti Gerakan in a Barisan Nasional (BN) ticket since 1974 except in the 1997 by-election held due to the death of then MP Ong Tin Kim. In the by-election, M. Kulasegaran of DAP defeated the BN candidate Dr. Chee See Choke with a majority of 2916 votes.

It is interesting to see how these 2 candidates fare in this General Election. While the Telok Intan seat is considered quite safe for the BN, any upset can happen like in the 1997 by-election. With current issues affecting the people such as rising inflation, dead body snatching incidents, corruption scandals, it remains to be seen how these issues will work to the advantage or disadvantage of the candidates. With close to 20% Indian voters in this constituency, it is also interesting to note whether the Hindraf issue has any impact on the results of this General Election.

State Constituencies

There are 2 state constituencies for the Perak State Assembly in the Telok Intan parliamentary constituency - N55 Pasir Bedamar and N56 Changkat Jong.

The Pasir Bedamar seat is mainly urban covering the town center of Teluk Intan, major housing estates in the suburbs and a rural section covering villages located close to the town. I am a registered voter for this state constituency.

Candidates for Pasir Bedamar:

1. Lee Heng (BN - PPP)
2. Seah Leong Peng (DAP) (Incumbent)

This is a repeat of the 2004 General Elections with these 2 candidates face off again in 2008. The Pasir Bedamar seat is a DAP stronghold. The only time DAP lost in Pasir Bedamar was in 1995 when urban voters throughout Malaysia voted in favour for the ruling BN-coalition.

The Changkat Jong state seat is mainly a rural constituency covering villages and plantations located in part of the rural side of Hilir Perak.

Candidates for Changkat Jong:

1. Mohd Anuar Sudin (PAS)
2. Idris Hashim (BN - UMNO)

There is a significant number of Indian voters in Changkat Jong and even the Menteri Besar of Perak has recently listed Changkat Jong as a seat to watch out. It is interesting to also see if the Hindraf issue has any impact, particularly among Indian voters in Changkat Jong. The BN has always won the Changkat Jong state seat in previous elections.

Yes. My blog is no longer The J Blog. It is now known as Sunrise, and the URL has also changed to http://sunrise.jolmy.com/. Please update your bookmarks. If you link to my blog, please update the URL too.

Posts and comments in the former The J Blog are transferred to Sunrise. Hence, you can still access posts in my blog since July 2006.

Malaysiakini

DAP MP for Perak’s Batu Gajah Fong Po Kuan has reversed her decision not to defend her seat.

At a press conference in Ipoh today, Fong said she was ready to contest the seat which she has held for two terms.

Her dramatic reversal came after days of persuasion from party leaders.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang - who earlier said Fong was “incommunicado” - was able to speak to her yesterday to convince the popular 35-year-old politician to change her mind.

Fong apologised to the Batu Gajah voters, supporters and the party for causing them ‘disappointment and hurt’.

“It was definitely a very painful decision (to withdraw). However, I felt very remorseful when I discovered how much a majority of the people cared for me and supported me.

“Indeed, the reflection of their immense support touched me deeply which brought about the thought that I must not fail them,” she said.

Unwise decision

Fong said she realised that her decision to quit was not wise.

“Besides, this coming election is very crucial to all concerned Malaysians.

“I promise to remain to shoulder the responsibility to be at the frontline with all Malaysians for the benefit of many generations to come,” she added.

Fong left immediately after reading her statement at the DAP operations centre.

Lim and DAP deputy secretary-general M Kulasegaran were also present together with some 150 supporters.