LIKE the steep and winding ascent to Cameron Highlands, Pakatan Harapan’s battle with Barisan Nasional for the federal seat is an uphill one.

It narrowed its losing margin against BN to a few hundred in the last two elections on the back of mostly non-Malay votes but this time around, the Chinese and Indian turnout is expected to present a challenge.

The seat in Pahang has 32,008 voters and will be tightly contested with 34.4% Malays, 29.8% Chinese, 14.8% Indians and 20.9% Orang Asli. 

In the last election, BN and PAS dominated the 3,838 Felda votes at 43% and 42%, respectively. Malay votes totalled around 11,000.  BN also claimed more than 85% of the 6,200 Orang Asli votes. 

PH, meanwhile, took nearly 95% of the 14,000 non-Malay votes.

PH will be hoping to use the anti-corruption narrative among the Orang Asli after BN’s win in Cameron Highlands in GE14 was nullified by the election court over vote-buying by its candidate C. Sivarraajh.

But PH will be tested in the Orang Asli segment, now that BN has fielded a local candidate from the Semai tribe. Ramli Mohd Noor is not just an Orang Asli but a retired high-ranking police officer.

The Orang Asli, for the first time, will be forced to choose between a government candidate and one of their own.

The ruling coalition, which has enjoyed strong support from non-Malay voters all this while, does not have this security in Cameron Highlands, due to a combination of the timing of the by-election and its struggle to fulfil manifesto promises as the federal government.

Institut Darul Ehsan research manager Khairul Ariffin said polling day on January 26 is too close to the Chinese New Year holiday (February 5 and 6) for many Chinese voters to go home to vote.

“More than 40% of the Chinese voters in Cameron Highlands reside outstation and it is unlikely many will come back to vote.”

He said the Indian turnout during GE14 was also the lowest at 59%, compared to the national average of 82%.

“With the PAS bloc of votes going to BN, it doesn’t look altogether promising for PH.”

The DAP assistant national director for political education, Ong Kian Ming said retaining Chinese and Indian support will be a challenge.

“Given that PH has not been able to immediately meet the high expectations of these communities post-GE14, we expect support for PH among the Chinese voters to decrease,” he said, referring to the ruling coalition’s inability to keep some of its manifesto promises.

At the very least, PH must retain 70% of Chinese and Indian support, said Ong, who is the Bangi MP.

Another tricky problem for both sides, said Khairul, is logistics.

“Although Cameron Highlands is among the smallest of seats in Pahang, the distance between Tanah Rata and Jelai is almost 200km. The Bertau voting station, for instance, is a four-hour trip due to the road conditions,” said Khairul.

Jelai is also the state seat held by Pahang Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, who is also Umno’s and BN’s state liaison chief. Pahang and Perlis are the only two states left ruled by a BN government.

Having only captured around 10% of the Malay and Orang Asli vote in GE14, PH must now try to increase support from these two groups  at least 30%, DAP’s Ong added.

PH is thus on enemy ground, unlike during the previous four by-elections in Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia, Balakong, and Port Dickson.

Lay of the land

The four Cameron Highlands candidates yesterday successfully filed for nominations. They are BN’s Ramli, PH’s M. Manogaran from the DAP, who is making his second bid for the seat, and independents Sallehuddin Ab Talib and Wong See Yee.

Though only 712sq km in size, Cameron Highlands is difficult ground to traverse due to the hilly terrain. Many of the Orang Asli villages are located deep in the interior.

There are 29 voting stations and voters are divided into the northwesterly areas of Tanah Rata, Ringlet and Brinchang and southeastern area of Jelai.

The two state seats in the federal constituency  are Jelai, under BN, and Tanah Rata held by DAP’s Chiong Yoke Kong.

Named after English geologist William Cameron, the vegetable farming area is also one of the oldest tourist spots in the country.

With US$3 million in 1931, the British completed a road from Tapah to Tanah Rata. Much of the winding route has remained unchanged. 

After the road was opened, British expatriates and locals began settling on the slopes of the mountain. They were soon followed by tea planters and vegetable farmers who found the cool climate suitable for their crops.

Since then, three other routes have been established. From the north, one can get here via Simpang Pulai while travellers from the south can use the Gua Musang route. From Pahang, Cameron Highlands can be reached via Bentong.

But while the ares was already well developed as a farming and tourist spot at the turn of the century, it did not become a parliamentary seat until 2003 during a redelineation exercise.

Cameron Highlands was won by MIC’s K Devamany in 2004 and 2008. It went to MIC president G. Palanievel in 2013. His replacement Sivarrajh won the seat in a five-way battle against Manogaran (DAP), Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud (PAS), B. Suresh Kumar (PSM) and Mohd Tahir Kassim (Berjasa) in GE14.

In the last elections, Sivarrajh won by a small margin of 597 votes (2.45%) after securing 10,307 votes (42.3%). But his victory proved short-lived when it was nullified  in November by the election court on grounds of vote buying. – January 13, 2019.