The Malaysian Insight is running a series on marginal parliamentary seats as the nation heads toward the 14th general election. We look at how three parties are heating up Cameron Highlands with their campaigns.

SPEAK to anyone in Tanah Rata and they will tell you the fresh, cool air of Cameron Highlands is giving way to higher temperatures.

The hot air these days is due less to climate change than to the political competition heating up for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat, which was won by a razor-thin 462 votes in the 13th general election.

The prospect of victory in Cameron Highlands and its two state seats in the 14th general election has led to fierce pre-election campaigning by three parties, the MIC, MyPPP and Parti Socialis Malaysia (PSM).

MIC and MyPPP are both components of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), while PSM is an opposition party has occasionally worked with Pakatan Harapan (PH).

Due to the high percentage of 20% Indian voters, Cameron Highlands has always been contested by MIC since the seat was created in 2004 due to the electoral redelineation.

It was one of three seats that the MIC was able to hold on to in the 2013 general election besides Tapah and Segamat.

In 2013 it was won by former MIC president and Cabinet Minister G Palanivel. But after an internal party crisis, Palanivel has dropped off the political radar.

The high percentage of Orang Asli votes in one Cameron Highland’s state seats, Jelai, is also spurring one of the community’s activists, Mat Nor Ayat, to run for the state seat. 

About 33% of Jelai’s 11,000 votes come from the Orang Asli.

MyPPP president M Kayveas has claimed that Cameron Highlands was promised to his party by former prime minister-turned opposition politician Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

MIC on the other hand is defending its stake.  

MyPPP seems to have a strong argument with MIC looking to be uninterested in the seat.

L Suresh, who is PSM’s potential candidate, sees the bickering between MIC and MyPPP as a bonus for his party’s campaign to win Cameron Highlands.

“I have worked with the residents’ association here since 2004. There is a chance for us as we have been among the people,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Suresh, who has frequently been the voice for plantation workers and Orang Asli is confident that in GE14, more voters will be familiar with PSM, a party which is not a heavy weight in the country’s political landscape.

“After the 13th general election we can see that support for BN and MIC has gone down as they have not shown their faces for years. But we are always here.

“That is our advantage. We have gone around distributing leaflets and getting people familiar with our logo. This has increased our popularity.”

Three cornered fights?

Due to its cool climate, Cameron Highlands is known for its tea plantations and as a getaway since British colonial times.

After Merdeka, it became a tourist destination and a centre for growing vegetables such as lettuce and tomatoes.

The parliamentary seat is made up of two state seats. Tanah Rata, a Chinese majority seat with a voter population of 16,000 and Jelai, with 11,000 voters most of whom are Malays from Felda Sungai Koyan.

Tanah Rata is where the town is and the seat also encompasses Brinchang and Blue Valley. It was won by DAP’s Leong Ngah Ngah by more than 3,000 votes.

Most of Tanah Rata’s voters work in the tourist or agriculture industry. About 54% are Chinese, 20% Indian while Malays and Orang Asli make up the rest.

About 66% of Jelai’s voters are Malays but it also has the highest proportion of Orang Asli voters in Malaysia at 33%.

Although Malays and Orang Asli are said to be loyal BN supporters, the coalition’s Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail only managed to get 52% of all votes in GE13. His winning majority against PAS candidate Abdul Karim Nor was 3,182 votes.

PSM’ Suresh also claims that the DAP has not paid attention to the parliamentary constituency since its candidate M Manogaran was beaten by BN’s Palanivel.

“The DAP does not have an office here. There is only the private office of their former candidate but not an official DAP office (for Cameron Highlands),” said Suresh.

“Manogaran only lost by 400 over votes but after that we have not seen his face. He hasn’t opened an office here.

“MIC and BN are also rarely seen. We have been working hard for the past 14 years and we believe this has given us the advantage,” said Suresh.

Kayveas of MyPPP has said that his party has been holding regular programmes for voters in Cameron Highlands for the past two years.

“I will definitely contest here either as a BN candidate or as an independent,” he had said recently.

MyPPP youth chief Sathiah Sudakaran claims the party’s surveys show that MyPPP has a better chance at defending the seat than MIC.

“We have knocked on all doors here to listen to and solve the community’s problems before the next election. We believe that the BN can win here by more than 5,000 votes if the candidate is Kayveas.”

A Tanah Rata farmer who wanted to be known as John admitted that he had seen more of Suresh and Kayveas than any MIC leader in the constituency.

“I have also seen Palanivel sometimes. But this year, Kayveas has been here more often and he has organised carnivals and met the people”.

Paradise no more

Cameron Highlands’ popularity as a farming and tourist area is bringing in much needed income but it is also taking a toll on the environment that has fuelled those industries.

“Cameron is becoming dirtier because of all the tourists,” said Tanah Rata businessman Chong Lau, 54.

“The more hotels they build, the more we risk triggering landslides and accidents.”

The warmer climate in Cameron Highlands is being blamed on the clearing of jungles for farms and plantations.

“It’s a lot more warmer now. You don’t need to wear warm clothes at night anymore. How are we supposed to preserve Cameron Highlands if our politicians don’t think of these things?”

Saadah Ahmad, who runs a restaurant in Ringlet, said the congestion that comes from the all the tourists has become a bane for residents.

“It is not like in the past, now we feel like running off to Kuala Lumpur during the school holidays.”

But among the hardest hit by all the development are the Orang Asli who have had to move their communities every time a new project goes up.

“The land that we claim as tribal land is shrinking. Every time there is project our lands shrink,” said Orang Asli activist Jefri Hasan of
Pos Lanai.

“Before this we had to move due to the TNB-Telum dam and we were given a small plot of land at a new place.”

He said the Orang Asli needed their tribal lands to hunt and gather forest products for their survival, not just a small house and a plot of farming land.

“We are like vagrants in our own homes. If we don’t have land then we can’t survive. We hope that in the next elections, there will be politicians who listen to us.” – November 13, 2017.