AFTER 10 days of campaigning, PKR’s Batu Lintang candidate Cherishe Ng is still grappling with the problem of how to reach the 29,694 voters in this urban Kuching constituency without violating the Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) for the elections.

Cherishe, at 24, and one of the two youngest candidates in the Sarawak polls, is a first-timer and an unknown, even though her father, Dominique Ng, is a high-profile politician. He became PKR’s first-ever state assemblyman when he won the Padungan seat in the 2006 elections.

He is also a senior lawyer and a native land rights defender.

“The SOP meant that the ways of campaigning are somewhat restricted,” Ng, who is also PKR’s election coordinator, said in an interview with The Malaysian Insight.

“We can’t quite do it the way we have done in the past.”

Ng said voters like to get to know their candidates personally but, because of the SOP, that had become a challenge.

He said new candidates like Cherishe are at a distinct disadvantage due to the SOP.

Of the five candidates contesting in Batu Lintang, only Cherishe and the 46-year-old independent activist Leong Shaow Tung of Parti Aspirasi Rakyat Sarawak (Aspirasi) are the political novices.

Incumbent See Chee How of Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) had contested there three times, Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) Sih Hua Tong twice, and the pro-independence president of Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK), Voon Lee Shan, was the assemblyman there for one term between 2006 and 2011.

Even though nearly half of the voters are in the 40 to 69 age group and considered somewhat IT savvy, the 10% in the 70 to 79 age group would be a cause for concern to Cherishe.

The SOP, drawn up by the Health Ministry to curb the possible spread of the coronavirus during the election, among other things, bans mass gatherings.

However, there is an exemption to the ban.

In 64 of the state’s 82 constituencies, where telecommunications, in particular phone and internet services, are poor or totally non-existent, political gatherings are allowed.

In the other 18 constituencies, all urban constituencies where the internet service is at its optimum, like Batu Lintang, the ban stays.

Forced to take advantage of what the many social media platforms have to offer, Ng said he is amazed at the use of social media now compared to when he was on the campaign trail 15 years ago.

“It’s growing by leaps and bounds.”

Ng said since almost everyone in cities like Kuching have at least a handphone, some of the ways to reach out to the voters would be via WhatsApp, Facebook and even TikTok.

“We have to resort to shooting (our own) interviews and making short video clips for transmission in WhatsApp, Facebook or YouTube (accounts).”

With only three days left before Sarawakians go to the polls to cast their vote on Saturday, Ng said Cherishe has “not really” managed to overcome the “distinct disadvantage” she has.

“But we do try our best to reach out to her voters in as many ways as are possible.”

Ng rates his daughter’s chances in unseating See as “still fair”.

At the other end of the scale, the fortune of a rather familiar face in Sarawak, GPS’ candidate for Kota Sentosa Wilfred Yap, is somewhat expected.

These elections would be Yap’s second attempt for the seat held by DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen for three terms since 2006.

Banners, posters and billboards are still the staple in this constituency of 28,392 voters, Yap’s communication officer, Sivanesan Sanmugalingam, said.

They’ve even added a new medium – the moving ads on A-Boards.

But still, Sanmugalingam said, it’s very much a social media-driven campaign.

“With that comes the challenge on how to be fresh and contemporary with our content all the time,” he said.

“Creating new and interesting content is a major challenge.”

To reach the 9% of voters who are in the 70 to 90 age group, once the core of their support, the old tried and trusted method of dropping campaign materials in mail boxes is employed.

Reaching out to the less tech-savvy voters is a big concern to Yap’s campaign team, Sanmugalingam said.

As candidates are banned from face-to-face interaction with voters, Yap and his team would hang around coffeeshops where the “oldies” frequent for a chat.

“We have lots of coffee breaks to increase visibility,” he said.

The 55-year-old Yap, a lawyer by training, is in a five-cornered tussle with rights activist Tan Kok Chiang of Aspirasi, Lau Pang Heng of PSB, Michael Kong of DAP and Lue Cheng Hing of PBK.

Chong is not defending the seat having opted to move to Padungan instead.

Batu Lintang, Padungan and the seat of Pending are all under the DAP-held parliamentary seat of Bandar Kuching. – December 15, 2021.