AFFORDABLE housing, welfare for the needy, education, licenses for traders and more parking areas are in the long list of issues plaguing urban voters. 

For the 113,000 Batu voters, there are 10 candidates including incumbent P. Prabakaran offering to solve some if not all of their issues. It is the largest multi-cornered battle in this general election. 

They don’t want a candidate who will just stand on the sidelines but tackles the issues head on.

Resident Mohd Razif Zamri, 45, said what the people need the most is more affordable housing.

“The cost of houses here is very expensive. It is hard to buy and even harder to get a loan without a fixed income. The cheapest home we can see is more than RM300,000.”

“With our current cost of living, it is difficult as rental is also high,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Razif, who has five children between the ages of four and 18, hopes their representative will be able to help with the high cost of living and high price of goods.

“Monthly I have to spend more than RM300 on diapers and milk. Things are just too expensive.”

He said another issue that must be addressed urgently is the haphazard parking all over the area.

“Especially at the low cost flats and the surrounding areas. Some families have more than one car, so they park all over the place.”

“We can’t even find parking when we go to the market, clinic and run errands at the Sentul Urban Transformation Centre (UTC).”

He suggested that elevated parking be built to address the issue.

Batu is seeing a 10-cornered fight with four independents.

Apart from Prabakaran, others in the race are A. Kohilan Pillay (Barisan Nasional), Azhar Yahya (Perikatan Nasional), Wan Azliana Wan Adnan (Pejuang), Naganathan Pillai (Warisan) and Mohd Zulkifli Abdul Fattah (Parti Rakyat Malaysia).

The independents are former two-term Batu MP Chua Ting Chang, lawyer Siti Kasim, social media influencer Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharudin and social activist Too Cheng Huat.

Prabakaran won the seat as an Independent in the 2018 election, with the support of Tian Chua. He will be challenging the former PKR vice president who was sacked from the party for contesting as an Independent.

Tian Chua was disqualified from contesting in the 2018 general election due to a RM2,000 fine for insulting the modesty of a police officer.

In GE14, Prabakaran garnered 38,125 votes, defeating Barisan Nasional’s Dominic Lau Hoe Chai (13,687 votes), PAS candidate Azhar Yahya (10,610) and Independent VM Panjamothy (383).

Batu constituency’s  estimated 113,000 voters, including those aged between 18 and 20 are added in the mix with automatic voter registration.

Its ethnic composition sees Malays making up 43%, followed by Chinese (30%), Indians (20%) and others (7%).

Razif said that it is not going to be easy choosing the right candidate as he believes both Tian Chua and Prabakaran have contributed to the community.

“We have seen some changes here over the years. We will see who has performed better, then make our choice.”

“We don’t look at race, but we need a young person who can continue making changes here.”

Another resident Shammadi Mat Kamis, 47, said their MP must help the traders and urban poor families in the area.

“We often hear that many people have welfare issues, so whenever there are problems we want to see our MP here.”

“The cost of living is high and the minimum wage is only RM 1,500. During the Covid-19 pandemic many have lost their jobs.”

On the 10 candidates contesting in Batu, the hotel chauffeur said the situation is complicated with so many people in the game.

“It is confusing as there are so many of them.”

“We have seen Prabakaran come down to the ground a lot. If there are issues, he is here. Whatever he can do, he will help. But, we will see.”

Marcus Kumar, 40, said that anyone is free to contest in Batu but they must have a proven track record.

“We have seen Prabakaran and Tian Chua on the ground but not the rest.

“We only heard that Siti and Azhar will be contesting but don’t know about the rest of the candidates.”

Marcus who works in the banking industry believes that the influx of candidates is too split the votes in Batu.

“We will go for those who have proven themselves here. Those who have done work (for the people) here.”

Noorhazli Mat Kamis, 43 who works as a chef wants his MP to carry out welfare programmes for the needy in the area.

“Maybe the person can set up a centre where they provide weekly food aid for the people.”

“If the person wants to be the best candidate here, they should also do a survey on how many people need assistance.”

As for the candidates, he said he has only seen Tian Chua and Prabakaran doing work in the area.

“When there was a fire Prabakaran came, when people were sick Tian Chua came to help compared to the other parties who don’t pay any attention here.”

“Tian Chua has also been coming here prior to the election. We think the other parties are here to split the votes. I’m also surprised, what is so special about Batu?”

Banana fritters seller who wants to be known as Ramli, 65, said that what the traders need is a proper license to do business in the area.

“Some of the traders here don’t have a license, so if they want to apply for a small loan they can’t.”

“What we want to see is that the traders get licenses, so that they can continue their business as it is their only source of income.”

On the candidates, Ramli said that Tian Chua has done many things for the people in the area.

“This is because he (Tian Chua) comes down to the ground and meets the traders face to face. Whereas we see Prabakaran only going to meet the association (traders) head.

“Prabakaran only came here after he won (GE14), but the MP who came here the most is Tian Chua. He has my support.” – November 13, 2022.