FOOTBALL matches, direct phone calls and going house to house are among the ways the Semenyih by-election candidates are reaching out to the under-40 group of voters – the bloc whose votes decided the outcome of the state seat on May 9.

The under-40 makes up half of the 53,257 voters in Semenyih and it was this group which allowed Pakatan Harapan to capture Semenyih for the first time in the last general election.

This time, however, young voters appear to have largely turned against the government because of its failure to deliver on its promises to defer higher education PTPTN student loan repayments, abolish tolls and reinstate cost-of-living aid for singles.

A TMI straw poll that surveyed 10 young people in four polling districts in Semenyih showed that half was dissatisfied with the government, four willing to give PH more time and one unsure about the administration’s nine-month performance.

Institut Darul Ehsan senior analyst Kamarul Bahrin Zahid said these young voters are smart, politically conscious and have none of their parents’ sentimental attachments to certain political parties.

“They will switch from one party to another depending on who they think best serves them,” said Kamarul.

There are 22,000 Malay voters aged below 40 in Semenyih, said Hulu Langat Umno Youth chief Mohamad Syahir Mohd Yusof.

“If you add that to the number of non-Malay voters who are under 40, the group makes up 50% of Semenyih voters. It’s a big number and they are very important,” said Syahir, whose job in the by-election is to win over the Malay men under the age of 40.

Football and calls

The Semenyih by-election is a four-way contest between PH’s Muhammad Aiman Zainali, Zakaria Hanafi (Barisan Nasional), Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul (Parti Sosialis Malaysia) and Kuan Chee Heng (independent).

BN is piling on the number of campaign programmes featuring Najib Razak after the ex-prime minister and his personal PR campaign, “Malu apa bossku” proved a hit in the Cameron Highlands by-election campaign last month and helped the coalition retain the seat by a bigger majority.

The four bossku programmes held in the Malay-majority districts of Bukit Mahkota and Kantan Permai have drawn about 500 people each time.

At the most recent event on February 24, Najib sat down with young voters to watch the Manchester United-Liverpool match at a popular mamak hangout in Kantan Permai.

“In the past, whenever we held a programme, the young people will ask us if there will a ‘token’ for them if they attend,” said Syahir of Hulu Langat Umno.

“But now they just show up and don’t ask for anything. We’ve had university students come to us and ask if they can volunteer their time. This has never happened before.

“First-time voters have told me that they regret voting for PH the last elections. They were taken in by the election promises because they had nothing to compare them to. But they say now that they have been duped, they can see the difference between BN and PH.”

On the PH side, activists like Nurul Huda Fadzil and a small squad of three to four members from components Bersatu, Amanah and PKR, have been patiently going house to house to canvass for young voters.

“We go to houses because we also want to get a reading on what our support levels and who is going to support us. At the houses, we can spread our message and counter any lie,” said Nurul Huda, who is in charge of the Bukit Mahkota district.

“So far, about 70% of the people we’ve met say they will give PH more time to fix the country,” said the activist from Srikandi, Bersatu’s women’s wing,

Nurul Huda’s team also calls up PH members they know are Semenyih voters but who are working and living outside the constituency.

Selangor Amanah Youth chief Abbas Salimi Azmi admitted BN events attract a larger audience than PH events, but that is not a gauge for actual support for the coalitions.

“Opposition parties will always get a bigger turnout because they have more time to campaign. But you cannot use crowd size to predict which party will win the election,” he said.

For example, he said, PAS events have always attracted the biggest crowd. “If crowd size is a measure of electoral support, then PAS should have been in power a long time ago.”

Unfulfilled promises, immature expectations

In the TMI straw poll, half of the 10 young people surveyed said they were disappointed in the government’s U-turns on its vaunted policies to stop collecting toll, defer university loan repayments and ease cost of living pressures.

Haris, a government employee who declined to reveal his full name, said he was tired of listening to PH’s explanations for its failure to keep its word.

“I don’t see any new hope in this government,” he said, after listening to future prime minister and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim speak at a ceramah.

“I wanted answers to certain things but they kept repeating the same old, same old excuses about the country’s big debts.

“I wanted to know how they planned to take things forward. We wanted to hear how they were going to deliver their promises. Instead they spoke of the same old things.”

Trader Mohaimi Syukur, 39, was one of the four in the TMI poll w willing to give PH more time to fulfil its promises.

“My friends are dissatisfied with PH but I think that’s an immature attitude. You can’t expect the government to solve all our problems in just one year. I’d give the government at least one term to see what it can do.” – February 28, 2019.