WELL-wishers came up to Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Chua Tee Yong as he did the customary walkabout in a pasar malam in the Tenang state constituency along Jalan Segamat route 1 last night.

Most of the regular stalls and customers knew who Chua was, and he seemed to know them too as he recommended stalls to the reporters around him.

“We like him. He’s affable and always smiles even though I keep bugging him whenever he comes,” said R. Ganesan of the 41-year-old caretaker deputy international trade and industry minister.

He wanted Chua to open up a bank and a petrol station in the area that has 19,147 voters spread across several Felda settlements.

“But Chua said we can get a bank only after he wins again,” Ganesan said grumpily.

Ganesan’s wife, Indira, said Tenang residents currently have to drive to Labis, which is 13km away, to deposit money and fill petrol.

Tenang, which was won by BN’s Mohd Azahar Ibrahim by 1,586 votes in the 2013 election, is one of two state seats in Labis. The other is Bekok, which was won by DAP’s Lim Eng Guan by 1,401 votes. Tenang is a Malay-majority (49%) seat while Bekok is a Chinese-majority (51%) seat. Tenang and Bekok have 11% and 18% Indians respectively.

In the last elections, Chua won Labis by merely 353 votes against DAP’s Dr S. Ramakrishnan.

It is no surprise, therefore, that Chua sounded cautious when asked about his chances this Wednesday.

“There’s still a week to go before polling. One day can be a very long period in elections,” said the MCA vice-president.

Despite his popularity here, Chua said he did not want to underestimate Pakatan Harapan candidate Pang Hock Liong as their strategy is based on “voting for party instead of candidate”. PAS has also fielded its own candidate Sarchu Sarwal in the fight for Labis.

Pang, who is from DAP, may appear to be lacking Chua’s energy, but the 61-year-old lawyer is a familiar name to the older voters of Bekok, where he was the state representative in 1990.

The sentiment in Bekok couldn’t be more different from that of Tenang. Many voters expressed a desire to see a change in government, and claimed to be lending their support for Pang.

Aware of the mixed response from the people within his Labis constituency, Chua said he is hopeful that his popularity among voters in Tenang will help drown out the dissatisfaction on the Bekok side.

“Although, (Pang) was a last-minute inclusion, DAP has always brought its other leaders to help with the campaigning,” Chua said.

“It’s like fighting a whole party”. – May 3, 2018.