CHUKAI: With the campaigning period nearing its halfway point, things at the Kemaman parliamentary by-election appear to be lukewarm at best, matching the dreary rain that falls nearly every evening in the constituency.
The lack of campaign posters and party flags are the most noticeable signs that the campaigning atmosphere is almost non-existent here, as campaigning seems to be dominated by Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Gen (R) Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor.
The series of political talks organised by both contesting parties, BN and PAS, have thus far been small scale and aired live, and the turnout has been dismal, with some talks having only a handful of people as their audience.
The candidates, meanwhile, have been using different approaches, with Raja Mohamed Affandi packing his daily schedule full with programmes from sunrise till late at night, while PAS candidate Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, who had allegedly been in Kuala Lumpur a day after nomination day, seemed to be dedicating his time to his duties as Terengganu Mentri Besar, and has been spotted managing flood evacuees in other districts in the state in the first seven days of campaigning.
Perdana Centre of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM Perdana Centre) lecturer Assoc Prof Dr Mazlan Ali said the different campaign approaches was likely due to PAS’ confidence after having scored significant victories in the 15th General Election (GE15) and the recent state elections.
"GE15 witnessed PAS winning every parliamentary seat in Terengganu, even in Kemaman, which was once a BN stronghold, they won with a majority of over 27,000 votes. Then there’s their clean sweep of 32 state seats during the recent state elections.
"So this has made PAS confident. Looking at the trend of reception received in Terengganu, maybe PAS feels they don’t need to campaign much. The state’s Mentri Besar is the candidate, that makes them even more sure that they’ll win,” he told Bernama.
Statements made by PAS vice-president Datuk Idris Ahmad during recent political talks seem to support such opinions, as he joked that even if a mineral water bottle was made a candidate for the party, it would manage to win and that they could win with a larger majority of 30,000.
In terms of campaign issues, PAS has been harping on the different allocations given to Opposition MPs, their efforts to topple the central government as soon as possible, and to propel Ahmad Samsuri to a higher position if he was elected as MP, while BN has been talking about the need for a "full-time" MP, and countering PAS’ accusations that the federal government was guiding Malaysia towards secularism.
Meanwhile Universiti Teknologi Mara's (UiTM) Institution of Malay Rulers Chair Fellow, Mujibu Abd Muis expects that campaigning would turn more aggressive in the last half of the campaigning period as candidates entered high gear to convince voters.
"Obviously, after identifying safe, battleground and hostile areas, then they can plan what they can do,” he said, adding that it was possible that online campaigning would become the main option of campaigning during the monsoon period and candidates might call off or pause their political campaigns for search and rescue efforts or disaster management.
"Face-to-face campaigning will still happen, but not on a large scale, but in a personal manner,” Mujibu said.
Kemaman Umno media chairman Wan Abdul Hakim Wan Mokhtar shared that the first phase of campaigning for BN was on the right track and had proceeded as planned.
"Our plans went well as we wanted and the response was good. For instance, when we nominated Raja Mohamed Affandi, it’s a game changer because suddenly the Mentri Besar has to contest. This is something that is very interesting to us,” he said when met. - Bernama
